Jean Cocteau's adaptation of his own play, written ten years earlier, was filmed with the original cast and was considered by Cocteau to be his most perfect cinematic work. The story of a middle-class family neurotically destroying each other with over-involved love and tender cruelty, the film is set almost entirely within the confines of two apartments: the cluttered home of the terrible parents, Sophie and George and their son Michel; and the tidy, airy apartment of Madeline, the girl Michel wants to marry. The marriage is opposed by the parents, a suicidally possessive mother and her philandering husband whose mistress Madeline is revealed to be, and by an aunt, secretly in love with Georges. Like many of Cocteau's creations, the film has an aura of ancient tragedy. French film critic Georges Sadoul writes, "In the hand of (Art Director) Christian Bérard...(the) two apartments are not merely sets but are characters in the drama. The brilliant acting is dominated by the two eldest actresses: Gabrielle Dorziat as the spinterish, spiritual (Aunt) Léonie, and Yvonne de Bray as the neurotic mother.....Michel Kelber's close-ups are very expressive. At the end of this 'vaudeville tragedy' the sound of a fire truck's siren emphasizes the silent, inbred world of the apartment as the camera slowly tracks away." -- "Dictionary of Films"