8.4 /10 1 Votes
97% Rotten Tomatoes Music by Lalo Schifrin Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Initial release 12 June 1964 Music director Lalo Schifrin Produced by Jacques Bar | 7.1/10 IMDb Written by René Clément Edited by Fedora Zincone Release date June 12, 1964 Director René Clément Cinematography Henri Decaë | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Starring Jane Fonda
Alain Delon
Lola Albright Cast Alain Delon, Jane Fonda, Lola Albright, Sorrell Booke, André Oumansky Similar Directed by René Clément, Alain Delon movies, Thrillers | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Joy House (French title: Les Félins) is a 1964 black-and-white mystery/thriller film starring Jane Fonda, Alain Delon, and Lola Albright. It is based on the 1954 novel by Day Keene.
Contents
It was Clement's second film for MGM.
Plot
In Monte Carlo, Marc, a handsome cardsharp, escapes American gangsters who have been ordered to kill him by the boss of a New York gang because he had an affair with the boss's wife. Marc hides in a mission for the poor where Barbara, a wealthy widow, finds him and hires him as her chauffeur. At Barbara's chateau, Melinda, Barbara's niece, becomes attracted to him. Marc discovers that Barbara is hiding her lover, Vincent, in the secret rooms and passageways of the chateau. She and Vincent (a bank robber sought by the police for murdering Barbara's husband) plan to murder Marc so that Vincent may use his passport in escaping to South America. Marc and Barbara begin an affair but are discovered by Vincent, who then kills Barbara but is himself killed by the American gangsters, who mistake him for Marc. Marc and Melinda plan to dispose of the two bodies, but when Melinda learns that Marc is planning to leave without her, she tricks the police into believing Marc guilty and forces him to hide in the chateau's secret rooms. He is her prisoner, just as Vincent had been her aunt's.
Cast
Production
It was Jane Fonda's first movie in France. She later recalled that the director made it without a script:
I didn't speak very good French then, and I never understood much of what was going on. The only people who really dug that movie, for some reason, were junkies. They used to come up to me and give me a big wink. But I'm awfully glad I did it because it got me into France and I met [later husband Roger] Vadim.