Crime Does Not Pay is a film-within-a-film excursion into crime passionnel that pays off almost too generously with blood, plot and stars. After the 16th reel, so does the mind.
Three of the four episodes comprise a movie that a Parisian goes to see one afternoon after a spat with his wife. The first is a grisly little playlet borrowed from Stendhal's Italian Chronicles, about an aging Venetian duchess who gets even with her handsome, young, philandering lover by having him chased by a band of cutthroats. He finds momentary sanctuary in a church where a funeral is in progress. But when...