Joy House (film)

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.