I can't prove it, of course, but I have a feeling that David Lean knew and admired this film because roughly a decade later he made a very similar film, Madeleine, which was also based on a real case in which a wife was accused of murdering her husband. Pierre Chenal had already won his spurs with a succession - Crime et chatiment, L'Homme de nulle part, L'Alibi - when he embarked on this, which is arguably his piece de resistance or at least very close to it. What impresses is the way Chenal uses the camera, now a Close Up, now a crowded screen, telling his story via light and shade. Arguably the biggest 'name' in the cast was Erich von Stroheim (with hair yet) who is strangely subdued and seems content to remain in the background. The majority of the excellent cast - with the possible exception of Pierre Renoir as the victim - are more or less unknown but this only adds to the excellence of the film.