sol- Vacationing in Spain with her daughter, her husband and her best friend (who also happens to be her husband's mistress), a middle aged woman becomes obsessed with a young murderer evading police capture in this bizarre but endlessly fascinating drama, written and directed by Jules Dassin from a Marguerite Duras novel. The best element that the film has in its favour is atmosphere. With rolling blackouts, violently stormy weather, eerie ancient-looking locations and a mysterious figure roaming from rooftop to the rooftop, there is a constant apocalyptic air to the tale and Romy Schneider's mistress character even comments at one point "it's the end of the world". The rooftop figure is the murderer - a scared, lonely soul that the jilted protagonist, played by Melina Mercouri, finds solace in. Fully aware of her husband's secret affair, she is able to sympathise with the murderer's motives as he reportedly shot dead his wife after finding her naked in the clutches of another man. In a refreshingly unexpected turn, the two cheated-on individuals do not fall passionately in love. In fact, on the contrary, he hardly utters a word and looks simply exhausted most of the time with an unspoken bond instead developing nicely between the pair. The film also benefits from lots of innovative camera-work with point-of-view shots cleverly used as Mercouri helps him get out of town, and some shots that gloriously sweep over her husband and daughter as they soundly sleep while she goes about her business. The movie ends on a bit of a baffling note and given its descent into obscurity over the years, '10:30 p.m. Summer' is clearly not a film for all tastes, but for those who like their movies daringly different, there is a lot to like here.

Pamela-5 I just saw this film (at LACMA) after having seen it when it first came out. Wow! I didn't remember it that way at all! I guess when you're 19 this kind of stuff seems hot stuff, or very very deep. Now that I'm 56, I think it's just kind of pretentious but full of wonderful acting, nice cinematography and lighting, and very pretty actors! Romy Schneider looks beautiful in this, yes. But I have seen her looking even better (mostly in French films). She did, though, have some very early-50s kind of makeup, which was perplexing, considering this was '66. Melina, unbelievably, looks very contemporary; she could have just stepped out onto Rodeo Drive in 2004. I had forgotten how STRIKING her looks are. And her emoting is, well, breath-taking. Peter Finch looked so slender and drop-dead elegant. His face took MY breath away. God, what a face! (No wonder everyone supposedly from Vivian Leigh to Danny Kaye fell in love with him!) Note: Topkapi came before this film, not after. As to the plot, maybe I'm just dense, but I didn't really see the point. I just wanted to be a part of the party! Altho' Melina played, supposedly, a horrible drunkard, I felt she acted like a reasoned lady at all times and don't see what the husband and the lover were "tsch tsch"ing about. She seemed to keep it together pretty darned well for a supposed alcoholic. The whole bit about the murderer was just a turn-off to me, and I thought it kind of spoiled the fun (some of you smarties will say, Duh, that was the POINT!), but I didn't WANT the fun to stop! In sum, pretty people in exotic locales. Lots of this film was very engrossing. The actors are everything here.

demunfallopferseinefrau Unfortunately, this is one of the most underrated films in movie history. As a matter of fact, it's almost forgotten nowadays, because it was a flop when it came out in 1966.Jules Dassin's fourth film with his wife, Melina Mercouri, is a slow-moving, poetic love triangle: Maria and Paul, a couple in their forties, travel through Spain with a mutual friend, Claire (played by Romy Schneider), and their daughter. On their way to Madrid, they come through a village where a man has just shot both his wife and her lover. Maria, who has realized that her relationship with Paul has changed, wants to help the murderer...One of the most surprising twists in the plot is the lesbian relationship between Maria and Claire. Maria wants to catch Claire in Paul's arms, and in a delirious state of mind she dreams about it. The scene in the shower with Mercouri and Schneider is pretty unexpected, though.The cinematography is just stunning, Mercouri's acting is divine, and Romy Schneider was never as pretty as in Dassin's drama. It's hard to find, but it is a must-see movie!

eric.hermans I would say it is a typical movie of its time showing a rift in a marriage while the couple travel in a strange country (see the Italian movies of the early sixties). Romy Schneider looks radiant, this is a couple of years before her breakthrough as a French movie star in the Seventies. The movie is in b/w and colour.