This Man Must Die (French: Que la bête meure), also titled Killer! in the UK, is a 1969 French–Italian psychological thriller film directed by Claude Chabrol. It is based on the 1938 novel The Beast Must Die by Cecil Day-Lewis, writing as Nicholas Blake. The story follows a widower who, obsessed with revenge after his only son is killed in a hit-and-run incident, tracks down the driver with the intent to kill him.
Contents
Plot
Returning from the beach, Charles Thénier's young son Michel is killed by a hit-and-run driver in a sports car. Charles vows to have his revenge, keeping a journal in which he states his intention to kill the offender once he finds him.
The police investigation is fruitless. Charles thinks the guilty party may run a garage, since there is no record of a car going in for repairs. By chance, while pursuing this hunch, he discovers that the actress Hélène Lanson was the passenger in a car that was damaged on the day of his son's death. Using his pen-name Marc Andrieux, he seduces her and discovers that the driver was her brother-in-law Paul Decourt. Hélène confesses that she has had depressive anxiety recently. Charles presses her to explain more but couldn't get more information. Eventually he overcomes Hélène's reluctance and arranges a trip for both of them to visit her sister's family in Brittany.