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Playwright Jean Anouilh was the guiding force behind the unorthodox murder mystery Le Rideau Rouge (The Red Curtain) During a provincial theatre production of Macbeth, several tragedies occur. The actors attribute these calamities to the "curse" supposedly hanging over the Shakespeare play, but police inspector Jean Brochard doesn't buy this. The plot's framework allows Anouilh to explore the differences and similarities between life on the stage and life in earnest. The cast includes Michel Simon as a despicable director (and first murder victim), Moneille Valentin as Simon's drug-addicted mistress, and Pierre Brasseur as a weakling actor who hides his failings by putting on a charade of bravado.