Joy House (Les Felins) (DVD)

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For those of you who only knew Jane Fonda as Mrs. Ted Turner, you may not understand just what a sex symbol Henry´s little girl became in the 60s. "Joy House" (1964) showcases Ms. Fonda at age 26 but looking barely 20 as a doe-eyed vixen whose sweetness-and-light routine knocks Marc right off his feet.

Marc is played by Alain Delon, a sex symbol every bit the equal of Fonda and also at the height of his prowess at age 30. Marc is a two-bit con man and lothario who made the mistake of sleeping with the wife of someone whose wife one should definitely not sleep with. The disgruntled cuckold sends his minions (including Sorrell Booke in his pre-Boss Hogg days) to take care of Marc … slowly and painfully and with plenty of pictures. In the film´s most harrowing sequence, Marc just barely manages to escape by driving off a cliff.

His risky gambit pays off and he finds refuge in a nearby mansion inhabited by two beautiful women, the young and lovely Melinda (Fonda) and her cousin, the older and lovely Barbara (Lola Albright.) Poor Marc has to fend off the advances of both women. Quelle dommage! But his tender trap has jagged teeth, and pretty soon Marc realizes he´s gotten himself into even hotter water than before.

The premise vaguely resembles Don Siegel´s "The Beguiled" but without the whole gothic Lolita thing. Unfortunately, "Joy House" isn´t nearly as compelling as Siegel´s underrated weird Western. While there are some deftly staged scenes including Marc´s initial escape and a chase that ends in a tightly-packed traffic jam, the framing story is dull and familiar. The psychosexual tension between Marc and the two women keeps things interesting for a while but the story takes another major and rather silly twist, all capped off by an ending that strives for "Twilight Zone" irony but simply comes off feeling contrived.

Director Réné Clément looked poised to join the ranks of great French auteurs in the late 40s and early 50s when he pulled off an unusual combination, twice winning the Best Director award at Cannes ("Battle of the Rails" in 1946 and "The Walls of Malapaga" in 1949) and two Academy Awards for Best Foreign Picture (then an "Honorary Award" for best foreign language picture released in the U.S.) for "Malapaga" and for his most famous film, "Forbidden Games" (1952). Praise followed for other films in this time frame: "Les maudits" (1947), "Gervaise" (1956), and his excellent Patricia Highsmith adaptation "Purple Noon" (1960).

But something went wrong in the 60s and Clément chose some questionable material in a bid for international commercial success. "Joy House" was a clear play for audiences on both sides of the Atlantic, featuring one of the hottest French celebrities (Delon) and one of the hottest American celebrities (Fonda). The film was also produced both in English and in French, and both options are available on this DVD.