Les Diaboliques, released as Diabolique in the United States and variously translated as The Devils or The Fiends, is a 1955 French black-and-white thriller feature film directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot, starring Simone Signoret, Véra Clouzot and Paul Meurisse. It is based on the novel Celle qui n'était plus (She Who Was No More) by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac. The story blends elements of thriller and horror, with the plot focusing on a woman and her husband's mistress who conspire to murder the man; after the crime is committed, however, his body disappears, and a number of strange occurrences ensue.
Clouzot, right after finishing Wages of Fear snatched the screenplay rights from master of suspense director, Alfred Hitchcock.[citation needed] This movie helped inspire Hitchcock's Psycho. Robert Bloch himself, the author of novel "Psycho", has stated in an interview that his all-time favorite horror film is Diaboliques.
