Taglines: Passion at ten. Envy at eleven. Murder at noon.
Purple Noon movie storyline. With no money of his own, Tom Ripley (Alain Delon) lives comfortably enough off the kindness of his wealthy companions. For a fee of $5,000, he is hired by the father of his childhood friend, Philippe Greenleaf (Maurice Ronet), to retrieve Philippe from Rome and bring him back to San Francisco. Upon Tom’s arrival in Rome, Philippe knows Tom’s task, and while keeping Tom as a companion, strings him along, as Philippe has no intention of going with Tom back to the US.
Philippe treats Tom poorly as he knows Tom will endure the abuse to get the money. But as Tom, Philippe and Philippe’s girlfriend Marge Duval sail from Rome to Taormina aboard Philippe’s sailboat for a short vacation, Philippe knows that Tom is not all he appears on the surface. Conversely, Tom, using two of his innate skills, has other plans to make money, far more than the $5,000 fee. Beyond the primary act of his plan, Tom is required not only to outwit the authorities, but also to manipulate those that know both Philippe and him, who include Marge, their American acquaintance Freddy Miles, and another acquaintance named O’Brien.
Purple Noon (French: Plein Soleil; Italian: Delitto in Pieno Sole; also known as Full Sun, Blazing Sun, Lust for Evil, and Talented Mr. Ripley) is a 1960 crime thriller film directed by René Clément, loosely based on the 1955 novel The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith. The film stars Alain Delon in his first major film, along with Maurice Ronet (as Philippe Greenleaf) and Marie Laforêt (as Marge); Billy Kearns (an expatriate American actor well-liked in France) plays Greenleaf’s friend Freddy Miles, and Romy Schneider appears briefly in an uncredited role as Freddie Miles’ companion. The film, principally in French, contains brief sequences in Italian.
Screenwriter Paul Gégauff wrote a variation on the same story in 1968 when he worked on Les biches for Claude Chabrol. Highsmith’s source novel was adapted again in 1999 under the original title, The Talented Mr. Ripley.
About the Story
The American Tom Ripley (Alain Delon) has been sent to Italy to persuade the wealthy Philippe Greenleaf (Maurice Ronet) to return to San Francisco and take over his father’s business. Philippe intends to do no such thing and the impoverished Tom enjoys living a life of luxury, so the two men essentially spend money all day and carouse all night. Tom is fixated on Philippe and his girlfriend, Marge (Marie Laforêt), and covets the other man’s life. Philippe eventually grows bored with Ripley’s fawning and becomes cruel and abusive to him. The final straw is when, during a yachting trip, Philippe strands Tom in the dinghy and leaves him to lie in the sun for hours.
Back on board, Tom hatches a plan to kill Philippe and steal his identity. First, he leaves evidence of Philippe’s philandering for an outraged Marge to find. After Marge goes ashore, Philippe confronts Tom, who admits his plan quite casually. Philippe, believing it to be a joke, plays along and asks Tom for the plan’s details. Suddenly frightened, Philippe offers Tom a substantial sum to leave him and Marge alone, but Tom states that he can obtain this sum anyway and far more. At last, pretending to accept his offer, Tom stabs Philippe as the latter screams Marge’s name. He casts the body overboard and returns to port.
Upon returning to shore, Tom informs Marge that Philippe has decided to stay behind. He then goes travelling around Italy using Philippe’s name and bank account, flawlessly mimicking his voice and mannerisms; in effect, Tom has become Philippe, even affixing his own photo, with seal, in Philippe’s passport. He rents a large suite in a Rome hotel.
When Philippe’s friend, Freddie Miles (Billy Kearns), comes to the hotel to see Philippe and begins to suspect the truth, Tom murders him as well. Freddie’s body is soon found and the Italian police become involved. Tom continues his charade, switching between his identity and Philippe’s, depending on what the situation demands. After carrying out an elaborate scheme to implicate Philippe in Freddie’s murder, Tom forges a suicide note and a will, leaving the Greenleaf fortune to Marge.
Tom survives a long string of close shaves, throwing the Italian police off his trail and seemingly having outwitted everyone. He even succeeds in seducing Marge, with whom he begins openly cohabiting. When Philippe’s yacht is being pulled out of the water for inspection by a buyer, his canvas-wrapped body is found attached to the boat because the anchor cable it was wrapped in had become tangled around the propellor. The film ends with Tom being unknowingly called toward the police.
Purple Noon (1960)
Directed by: René Clément
Starring: Alain Delon, Maurice Ronet, Marie Laforêt, Erno Crisa, Billy Kearns, Elvire Popesco, Nicolas Petrov, Ave Ninchi, Lily Romanelli, Nerio Bernardi, Viviane Chantel, Paul Muller, René Clément, Romy Schneider
Screenplay by: René Clément, Paul Gégauff
Production Design by: Paul Bertrand
Cinematography by: Henri Decaë
Film Editing by: Françoise Javet
Costume Design by: Bella Clément
Makeup Department: Louis Bonnemaison
Music by: Nino Rota
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for momentary violence and sexuality.
Distributed by: CCFC (France), Titanus (Italy)
Release Date: March 10, 1960 (France), September 2, 1960 (Italy)
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