Le Dos au mur

Le Dos au mur is a 1958 French film noir directed by Édouard Molinaro, adapted from a novel by the celebrated crime writer Frédéric Dard, also known as San-Antonio. Gérard Oury plays the male lead, while Jeanne Moreau portrays an unfaithful wife, a role echoing the part that had brought her fame a year earlier in Louis Malle's thriller Ascenseur pour l'échafaud. The picture draws on expressionist devices typical of the noir style, including voice-over narration, an extended flashback, unusual camera angles, long shadows and night-time photography. It marked Molinaro's feature-length debut, well before he became known for comedies such as Oscar (1967) and La Cage aux folles (1978). Oury, too, would later find fame as a director of popular comedies like Le Corniaud (1965) and La Grande Vadrouille (1966).