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Ozenne has a fetish for boots, but this is tolerated by Céléstine, who is old enough to have seen much worse. In addition to humoring Ozenne, Céléstine must also avoid the shameless sexual advances of Piccoli. Piccoli spends much time hunting in the woods, and has an ongoing feud with neighbor Daniel Ivernel, who vandalizes his property.
Céléstine patiently puts up with all this, and may even be secretly amused by it, in the French manner of irony. But it's no minor matter when a servant's young girl is murdered, and Céléstine suspects Joseph (Georges Gé), a fellow servant, an informer, a sadist, and a fascist sympathizer.
How others will see it. Some may find Buñuel's reverse sexism grating, but others will accept it as an allegory for how men should not behave. The characters are memorable, the casting is excellent, and the script is quite good. Of course, many viewers accustomed to ballyhooed blockbusters will have no patience for subtitled black and white films, and some classic movie buffs will want to see more familiar faces. I recognized only Jeanne Moreau, perhaps best known as the female lead in Jules et Jim and John Frankenheimer's The Train.
How I felt about it. This movie might as well be titled, "Men Are Pigs." A pretty woman such as Céléstine can hardly walk from point A to point B without an oafish or dufus man hitting on her. And they are not easily discouraged. Joseph comes off the worst, but Piccoli is little better, with his habit of using his status as an employer to take advantage of his female servants. Ozenne is at best pathetic in his obsessions, and neighbor Ivernel revels in a childish dispute with Piccoli.
Although she is no longer quite young, Céléstine is still striking, and she changes the environment for anyone she is around. Men long for her, more or less openly, while women become jealous or shrewish. Céléstine takes this behavior in stride. She's been a maid for some time, and she's seen it all, or at least enough to know what to expect.
This is not The Spiral Staircase, another murder mystery involving a beautiful woman in some peril. The killer doesn't turn out to be a 'normal' man harboring a dark side. Instead, he is an unpleasant man laboring under the delusion that he is entitled to his aberrant behavior since he is a 'true patriot.' Joseph's 'patriotism' is exemplified by virulent criticism of the democratic government, and support for pro-fascist politicians.
Director Buñuel thus makes his most contemptible character the proponent of a potential fascist revolution. This expresses Buñuel's disgust for right-wing extremists, a view shared by the film's heroine.