Therese Raquin

An updating of Zola's orphan-girl story finds Therese married to her elderly, sickly cousin Camille Raquin, whose dominating mother lives with them. It is a dull and empty life, void of romance, until she meets truck-driver Laurent. Suspicious, Raquin takes his wife to Paris. Laurent is on the same train and is surprised by Raquin when he is talking to Therese. Laurent throws the husband from the train, and the two lovers agree to keep silent. The police take Therese into custody when she reports her husband missing, and show her his body but she does not break down. A witness to the crime blackmails Therese, and the lovers pay him his extortion money, but he is killed while crossing the street in front of a speeding truck. But he has ordered his maid to mail a letter if he does not return.