The Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun

The Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun

Year: 1970

Runtime: 105 mins

Language: French

Director: Anatole Litvak

DramaMysteryCrime

Her first mistake was getting into the car. Dany Longo, a striking red‑haired, beautiful but disturbed and passionate woman who is also nearsighted, steals a Thunderbird and races across the south of France on an errand for her employer and his wife. As the chase intensifies, neither Dany nor anyone else knows her destination or the purpose of the mission, heightening the suspense.

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The Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun (1970) – Full Plot Summary & Ending Explained

Read the complete plot breakdown of The Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun (1970), including all key story events, major twists, and the ending explained in detail. Discover what really happened—and what it all means.

Danielle Lang, Samantha Eggar, an English secretary, types up a document for her advertising agency boss, Michael Caldwell, Oliver Reed, to accompany him on a business trip to Geneva. On the way to drop off her boss and his wife, Anita Caldwell, Stéphane Audran, at the airport, her boss hands her an envelope containing her pay.

After dropping them off, Dany impulsively decides to drive to the Riviera for the weekend. When she pulls into a small café, the owner tries to return a coat she supposedly left there the day before. At a petrol station, Dany is attacked in the toilet and injures her hand, and she is bemused by the way various strangers claim to know her.

Heading further south, she picks up a hitchhiker, Philippe, and the pair spend the night together. The following day, Philippe steals Dany’s car before they reach the coast. She later locates Philippe in Marseille, where they discover a man’s body and a gun in the car’s trunk.

After Philippe disappears again, Dany visits the dead man’s home in Avignon and unexpectedly finds some of her own clothes there as well as nude photos of herself. Returning to the café to reclaim the coat, she finds a pay envelope tucked into one of the pockets. Dany becomes completely perplexed by the tangled sequence of events and returns to the dead man’s house, where her boss, Michael Caldwell, is waiting. He claims the dead man was one of Anita’s lovers, whom she murdered at his home, and that they have planted evidence and staged incidents to trap Dany. The plan is to frame her for murder and steal her life.

As Michael reveals his intention to murder Dany and make it look like a suicide, she asserts she won’t be erased, because she has already sent both pay envelopes to the police. The weekend that began as a simple business trip spirals into a chilling conspiracy, leaving Dany to navigate a dangerous web of deceit and danger to prove her innocence and stay alive.

Last Updated: October 05, 2025 at 11:15

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Paranoid Road Trip Thrillers like The Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun

Isolated protagonists on a trip where nothing and no one is what it seems.If you enjoyed the intense, disorienting journey in The Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun, explore more movies like it. This list features similar conspiracy thrillers where a road trip descends into a web of paranoia, identity crises, and psychological suspense.

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The narrative typically follows a character on a physical journey that quickly spirals into a mental and emotional ordeal. They are often framed, hunted, or manipulated, forcing them to piece together a confusing puzzle while on the move, with every encounter increasing their paranoia and the threat level.

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Movies are grouped here for their shared core experience: the combination of a travel-focused plot with a pervasive sense of paranoia and psychological unraveling. They create a unique tension by limiting the protagonist's options and placing them in a constantly shifting, untrustworthy environment.

Identity Theft and Frame-Up Thrillers like The Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun

Protagonists fighting to prove their sanity as their life is systematically erased.Fans of The Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun will enjoy these similar movies about psychological manipulation and identity theft. Discover complex thrillers where the main character is caught in a web of deceit and must outsmart their manipulators to survive.

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Narrative Summary

These narratives hinge on a deliberate, often corporate or systemic, effort to discredit and destroy the protagonist. The plot is complex, involving planted evidence, doppelgangers, and characters who insist they know the protagonist. The emotional journey is one of escalating confusion, rage, and a determined fight for truth.

Why These Movies?

These films share the core theme of a personal reality under attack. The viewer's experience is defined by the intellectual challenge of unraveling the conspiracy alongside the protagonist and the visceral fear of being utterly powerless and erased.

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