"Adapted from a play by Vincente Sanches, the film is set in a bourgeois mansion ruled by the fickle Vanda (Maria de Saisset, an actress with perhaps the most withering look in all cinema), who drives her second husband to suicide only to be confronted by her first, who had been presumed dead. The...mood which might suggest Buñuel is...later offset by a rich elegance of color and design. Almost all the characters are motivated by lecherous, selfish and devious designs, facts not overlooked by the watchful servants, and this 'Upstairs, Downstairs' syndrome is exploited with a black, caustic wit. (T)he camera is the drama, dancing around faces and furniture, peering through keyholes...."-John Gillett