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The enigmatic Charles Frank, who wrote and directed several fascinating British productions before seemingly falling off the face of the earth, was responsible for this Jean Cocteau adaptation (the Cocteau original was previously filmed in France). Stripped down to essentials, the plot centers around George (Harold Warrender), who while married to Yvonne (Marian Spencer), keeps Madeleine (Marian Spencer) as a mistress. George's young son Michael (Russell Enoch), already in the formative stages of an Oedipus complex, falls in love with Madeleine. Yvonne is torn between keeping her son from going astray and preventing his unnatural mother fixation from getting out of hand. The fifth character is the exposition-spouting aunt Leonie (Ruth Dunning) who tries to smooth over her family's problems--and to overcome her own carnal desires.