Claude Chabrol directs the tense psychological thriller Que la Bête Meure (This Man Must Die). When his young son is the victim of a hit-and-run car accident, writer Charles Thenier (Michel Duchaussoy) is determined to find the killer. Obsessed with avenging his son's death, he carefully records his thoughts in a diary. He travels to Paris and meets actress Helene Lanson (Caroline Cellier), who is a prime witness to the accident. After they start up a love affair, he discovers that the driver of the car was her brother-in-law, Paul Decourt (Jean Yanne). Paul also owns the auto repair shop that fixed up the car after the accident. Believing Paul is the killer, Charles befriends his son Phillipe Decourt (Marc Di Napoli). As it happens, Phillipe also wants Paul dead for his own reasons. Charles manages to get invited to the family's seaside home in Brittany in order to finally get his revenge, but things don't work out according to plan.


A high-powered car races through the French countryside. A young woman is in the passenger seat. It enters a small village at speed.
Charles Thénier's nine year old son, returning from the beach, is run over at speed and the driver continues on without stopping.
Charles vows to have his revenge, keeping a note of his thoughts in a journal.
The police investigation is fruitless. Charles thinks the guilty party may run a garage as there is no record of a car going in for repair. Partly following his hunches and partly by chance he discovers that actress Hélène Lanson was the passenger in the car.
He seduces her under a false name as part of his revenge plan, and discovers that the real killer is her brother-in-law Paul Decourt, a man detestable even to his own family. He contrives for Hélène and himself "to visit the family" in Brittany, to further his plot.
While Charles is left with conflicting thoughts as to whether or not he will kill him, consciously saving him from a cliff-fall, Paul's teenage son, Phillipe, confides in him his own wishes to see his father dead.
Hélène confesses that she once slept with Paul but although Charles presses her for further confessions she does not confess the accident, though she is clearly thinking of it.
Charles decides to kill Paul in a faked boating accident and buys a yacht for the purpose. However Paul pulls a gun on him and reveals that he has read his journal and knows his plot. He has passed the journal to his solicitor to read should something happen to him.
Charles appears to give up and drives off with Hélène. In a roadside cafe the TV announces the death of Paul Decourt in a poisoning, and appeals for Charles to return, which they do.
He announces to the police that it would be foolhardy to kill Paul when he knew the journal would reach them (which it has). But they conclude this to be a double bluff and arrest him. However, Paul's son enters and confesses.
Back at their hotel, Charles is weary and promises to tell Hélène the entire story the next day. He leaves a confession on the pillow stating that the son's misplaced fatherly love for Charles had caused him to confess but Charles could not let this happen, it was he who killed Paul. He must sail off never to be seen again. His confession probably lets the son off and reopens the issue but it remains ambiguous as to which of the two did the act.

Release Date: October 20, 1970


Distrib: Allied Artists