Poison

Poison (La Poison), directed by Sacha Guitry, is a French black comedy about a married couple who, after thirty years of loathing each other, are each independently plotting the other's murder. The husband, Paul, visits a famous criminal defense lawyer and, pretending he has already killed his wife, learns exactly how to commit and get acquitted of "the perfect murder," which he then actually carries out. The film draws on Guitry's own postwar ordeal: in 1944 he was arrested on suspicion of Nazi collaboration without any concrete evidence, and his official acquittal did not come until 1947, an experience he also recounted in a book titled 60 Jours de Prison. Michel Simon insisted that scenes be shot in a single take, and the entire film was shot in just eleven days. The film drew about two million viewers in France, a popular box office success, and loosely inspired the 1966 Jack Lemmon comedy How to Murder Your Wife. Who it's for: anyone curious about a French classic of black comedy, made by a director who had his own bitter brush with the justice system, about a husband who learns how to commit "the perfect murder" from a lawyer and actually does it. Who it's not for: those wanting a light, good natured marriage comedy, since the film takes a mercilessly cynical view of both the French justice system and marriage itself.