Movie Review: Diabolically Yours, Starring Alain Delon and Senta Berger, Directed by Julien Duvivier (1967)

The Blu-Ray cover of Diabolically Yours, 1967. That eyebrow, tho.

Alain Delon and Senta Berger make a gorgeous couple in Diabolically Yours, 1967.

Gorgeous Senta Berger and handsome Alain Delon.

"Do I still look devastatingly handsome?"

The 1967 French thriller Diabolically Yours was the last movie of acclaimed director Julien Duvivier, who died in October of 1967, just two months before Diabolically Yours was released. Diabolically Yours stars French actor Alain Delon and Austrian-German actress Senta Berger, and together they make a gorgeous screen couple.

Diabolically Yours follows Delon as he wakes up in the hospital after a car crash. Delon has amnesia, and when Berger arrives at the hospital and says she’s his wife, he doesn’t remember her. (Don’t worry ladies, the crash didn’t affect Delon’s handsome face.) Berger takes Delon back to their fantastically huge house, and he tries to recover his memory. But is everything as straightforward as it seems? Who exactly is Kim the butler, who seems fixated on Berger? (Kim is perfectly played by Peter Mosbacher.) And what about Delon’s friend and doctor Frederic, who is always hanging around? (Expertly essayed by Sergio Fantoni.)

The performances in the movie are all excellent. Delon can convey so much emotion with just a glance, and Fantoni and Mosbacher give their supporting roles just the right touch of creepiness. Senta Berger is excellent, and she looks gorgeous in all the many costumes she wears throughout the film. The costume designer did a terrific job, as both Berger and Delon look fantastic—notice how Delon’s robe matches his blue eyes. Delon always looks handsome, of course, and he looks very sharp in the scenes where he’s wearing all black. Delon and Berger look so good together that I could watch a movie called Alain Delon and Senta Berger Watch Paint Dry in 1967.

I don’t want to give away too much of the plot, but after watching the movie, I wondered if it might have been improved if the big reveals at the end had instead been revealed to the audience at the beginning of the movie? Obviously, you’d have to change the structure of the movie, but I think you could still create suspense and tension doing so.

Diabolically Yours was released in France at the end of 1967, just two months after his iconic performance in Le Samourai. Diabolically Yours isn’t a masterpiece on the level of Le Samourai, but it’s still an entertaining and stylish film.