Purple Noon (1960)

Billy Kearns as Freddy.

So, just a short time back, I wrote on this thing about being confused by French Canadian movies. I'd watch them and assume they were French. But they drive American cars and lived in what looked pretty much like the United States, and I would wonder if it's a French movie set in America with French actors playing Americans. I sorry I'm not more hip to Canadian cinema.

I just watched Purple Noon (Plein Soleil). I started watching it on Fandor (available from the Criterion Collection). I hadn't read the description very carefully, but I quickly realized it was a French version of The Talented Mr Ripley. Starring Alain Delon, Maurice Ronet and Marie Laforet, all playing Americans. With American Billy Kearns as Freddy. Made in 1960.

Ripley seemed less pitiful than in the Matt Damon version, like more of a psychopath. Still, his first victim was really asking for it, more than in the 1999 version, and Freddy was less obnoxious. Freddy was played by American actor Billy Kearns who spoke French with a strong American accent---I'm not sure what the explanation for that was since French was English for purposes of the film.