What it’s about
In the idyllic town of Aix-en-Provence, well-to-do Henri Marchaux (Dacqmine) cavorts with gorgeous neighbor Leda (Lualdi) to the chagrin of his shrewish wife, Thérèse (Robinson), and oddball son Richard (Jocelyn). Meanwhile, the boorish Laszlo (Belmondo) courts their timid daughter Elisabeth (Valerie) and violates everyone's sense of decorum with his obtuse vulgarity. When Leda ends up the victim of a murder, intra-family tensions boil over.
Why we love it
Chabrol's first color film is a welter of oedipal conflict and emotional savagery; all of it with a slightly Hitchcockian twist. Among the excellent cast, Belmondo is particularly memorable for his hilariously irreverent turn as a drunk, uncouth Hungarian hanger-on, and so too is Robinson as Marchaux's petty yet sympathetic wife. Jocelyn is also well-cast as a creepy music lover who peeps through keyholes, among other habits. Adapted from a Stanley Ellin thriller, “Tour” is a poison dart aimed squarely at bourgeois convention.