Fifteen years after his trilogy of crime masterworks in the style of poetic realism, Marcel Carné returned to the dark side of human nature in Thérèse Raquin, his most standard film noir brilliantly adapted from Émile Zola’s naturalistic novel of the same name. Centered on the febrile chemistry and sex appeal of Simone Signoret and Raf Vallone, the film explores the same themes as another Zola adaptation, Jean Renoir’s La Bête Humaine (1938), which examines the conflict between society and nature, or man’s most primitive, physical desires; specifically, in both films, adulterous urges lead to murder on a train. Stuck in a loveless marriage to frail, sickly Camille (Jacques Duby), Thérèse (Signoret) acts on her sexual attraction to her husband’s handsome, rugged co-worker Laurent (Raf Vallone), which leads to an illicit affair that barrels toward inevitable mariticide onboard the ill-fated train. Sylvie plays Thérèse’s mother-in-law, who suffers aphonia after her son’s death and can communicate only with her terrifying, judgmental eyes, and the charming, extremely effective Roland Lesaffre plays Riton, a smarmy witness to the couple’s crime who comes calling with a blackmail demand.