Le Dos au Mur (Back to the Wall) was the inaugural directorial effort of Edouard Molinaro, who went on to such box-office smashes as A Pain in the A? and La Cage aux Folles. Gerard Oury stars as a wealthy young industrialist who discovers that his wife has been unfaithful. He concocts an underhanded scheme to win his wife back, making it seem as though her erstwhile lover is blackmailing her. The plan works all too well: The wife kills the lover, leading to a snowballing series of tragedies. Lacking the slickness of Molinaro's later films, Le Dos au Mur is redeemed by its energy and sincerity.