Marc (Alain Delon) is a French playboy who ran afoul of a jealous American mobster in Joy House, a 1964 film out now on DVD. Joy House was directed in lustrous black and white by French filmmaker Rene Clement with an eye for sharp angles—bird’s eye views, carpet-hugging perspectives, ominous zooms. It co-stars a kittenish Jane Fonda and a vixenish Lola Albright as wealthy American expatriates on the Riviera, posing as missionaries to the poor but engaged in their own illicit dealings.
At first, Joy House is a taut, succinct crime thriller with the Yankee mobsters as the ultimate Ugly Americans. Before long it becomes a highly stylized ‘60s sex romp, sticky with the notion that some men exude a musky aura no woman can resist. The plot goes a little unhinged, but is delivered with a soft nudge and a slight wink as if to say: We know it’s only a daft movie plot. Joy House also features one of the niftiest foot chases on film.
