1960 - PURPLE NOON aka, PLEIN SOLEIL aka FULL SUN aka BLAZING NOON

Alain Delon is Tom Ripley who murders his friend and then assumes his identity in order to get his money and his very hot girlfriend in this adaptation of a Patricia Highsmith novel.

Nobody does sleek and dangerous better than Alain Delon an actor not afraid to play a morally ambiguous character and probably a latent homosexual in this film.   The film maintains a high level of interest as Delon gets himself out of one situation after another as he tries to get away with his murder.

This film is extremely well directed by Rene Clement and impeccably photographed by Henri Decaë one of greatest cinematographers of the New Wave.  The on location photography in Italy and particularly around Naples is striking.  This is a film noir set in bright sunlight.

Hitchcock's comeback film Strangers on a Train was based on another Highsmith novel but Purple Noon is better than a lot of the Hitchcock thrillers.

115 minutes, screenplay by René Clément and Paul Gégauff.