Deep Water (1957)

Vic and Melinda Van Allen preserve their marriage through an arrangement that appears to tolerate her lovers as long as family life continues. Highsmith examines the ownership concealed inside that apparent tolerance. Money and social composure help maintain a home whose terms are becoming intolerable. Choose the novel for jealousy turning a supposedly civilised compromise into a threat. Its cold perspective offers little reassurance, and the book's workings should not be assumed from the film.