His fourth film leads author/director Jean Pierre Grumbach alias Melville in 1955 right into the Pigalle milieu in Paris. Before and after WW II Melville obviously knew this territory well and wrote an original script and wanted to paint as truthful a picture as possible. The story is about an aging small time gambler Bob (Roger Duchesne a post war movie star), who doesn't sleep with the girl he loves (Isabelle Corey as Anne, according to Melville 16 years of age at that time), but leaves that to almost everybody else. Bob is a loner, smoking all the time dangerous cigarettes, drifting through the night and always ending up in the restaurant Carpeaux for an early morning gamble. Looking into a rusty mirror , he mutters: , A fine hoodlum face !
One day he looses his heart to a fluff, tells her the morals as well as his young friend Paulo ( Daniel Gauchy), is liked by really everybody even the police inspector (great actor Guy Decomble), is always halve broke and supports the girl, that shows us some nice black under ware. Bob is long time out of the gangster business since he was caught and run in jail by the inspector, who has it seems not much to do, so he sends out the pimp Marc to find something worth wile going after. Bob drives an American V 8 convertible through Paris, the police rides a 15 CV and out of every bar one can hear some different music. And Henri Decae is the lighting cameraman as in most Melville pictures, and he just pulls the trigger of his hand camera to catch the nightly beauty and morbidity of the Picalle area.
One night Bob is eventually totally broke and starts to plan a hold - up at the Casino of Deauville. He gathers a group of specialists (you can bring guns, but we don't use them) and being broke has to hire the money for the preliminary expenses from wealthy Howard Vernon (wearing obviously a false moustache and being almost a star in the fifties and the first leading character in Melvilles Film of 1947, Le Silence de la Mer ). Well, the inspector gets a hint because Paulo cant keep his mouth shut and wants to impress Anne, who doesn't love him at all, and stupid as she is tells the plan Marc. And it is the wife of the croupier, who tells the plan anonymously to the inspector. Many years ago Bob has saved the inspectors life, so the inspector runs around places to find Bob to tell him to stay away from the Deauville job. But the warning is too late. The action is supposed to start at 3 O'clock in the morning. To kill the time Bob is at the roulette and baccara tables, of cause starts to gamble and eventually blows up the bank and is late for the hold up. His beautifully prepared hold-up becomes completely unnecessary because he has just won the eight hundred millions in the Casino vaults by legal means. Paulo is shot dead by the police. Like a waiter the casino boy brings the money after the handcuffed Bob, who mentions to his friend the inspector, that he hopes that the money is safe with them....
Actually a comedy, not very light hearted thou, and only because of the ending. A fine black and white picture (made with very little money) with one black man at the piano, all the rest are people between night and day between a thing called love and making somehow a living. It is a rather cool picture, a love letter to Paris; no fast actions; there is only one outburst of hate, when Paulo shoots Marc, to stop him to tell the inspector about the Deauville Raid. You can see nice details from the time one is missing for over forty years now, for instance the small 4 door Renault with the engine in the rear and the doors opening the wrong way. And I liked the two ladies dressed by Ted Lapidus in the bar, I liked the one - armed bandit in the closet, the three wheel mini car being purposely put in front of the oncoming huge convertible (that is pure Tati), early tourists in American sailor uniforms driving motorcycles, and the relationship between Bob and the Cop. One can hear and see, that they are in the same business.
Buildings underneath Sacré Coeur are still, where they used to be. But nowadays the area is pretty well redecorated. Girls and lovers, gamblers and gangsters, inspectors and thieves, concierges and barmen are where they are supposed to be. You watch the picture and look into an authentic past, because Melville made a (as he would have said)movie' about stuff he not only knew from books or the screen. The picture includes one of the best gambling sequences in film history. Toward the end when Bob is in the Casino and starts to win Decae films and catches some great moments at the gambling tables and puts them together to a summary of post war melancholy and oncoming Gaullism.
Melville liked to have the film redone in colour. I don't. Still it was remade by Neil Jordan and called THE GOOD THIEF in colour and scope. I have my doubts if Melville would have liked that one. He cant object anymore. He was a conservative man.
Michael Zabel, Offenbach/Rodenbach
One day he looses his heart to a fluff, tells her the morals as well as his young friend Paulo ( Daniel Gauchy), is liked by really everybody even the police inspector (great actor Guy Decomble), is always halve broke and supports the girl, that shows us some nice black under ware. Bob is long time out of the gangster business since he was caught and run in jail by the inspector, who has it seems not much to do, so he sends out the pimp Marc to find something worth wile going after. Bob drives an American V 8 convertible through Paris, the police rides a 15 CV and out of every bar one can hear some different music. And Henri Decae is the lighting cameraman as in most Melville pictures, and he just pulls the trigger of his hand camera to catch the nightly beauty and morbidity of the Picalle area.
One night Bob is eventually totally broke and starts to plan a hold - up at the Casino of Deauville. He gathers a group of specialists (you can bring guns, but we don't use them) and being broke has to hire the money for the preliminary expenses from wealthy Howard Vernon (wearing obviously a false moustache and being almost a star in the fifties and the first leading character in Melvilles Film of 1947, Le Silence de la Mer ). Well, the inspector gets a hint because Paulo cant keep his mouth shut and wants to impress Anne, who doesn't love him at all, and stupid as she is tells the plan Marc. And it is the wife of the croupier, who tells the plan anonymously to the inspector. Many years ago Bob has saved the inspectors life, so the inspector runs around places to find Bob to tell him to stay away from the Deauville job. But the warning is too late. The action is supposed to start at 3 O'clock in the morning. To kill the time Bob is at the roulette and baccara tables, of cause starts to gamble and eventually blows up the bank and is late for the hold up. His beautifully prepared hold-up becomes completely unnecessary because he has just won the eight hundred millions in the Casino vaults by legal means. Paulo is shot dead by the police. Like a waiter the casino boy brings the money after the handcuffed Bob, who mentions to his friend the inspector, that he hopes that the money is safe with them....
Actually a comedy, not very light hearted thou, and only because of the ending. A fine black and white picture (made with very little money) with one black man at the piano, all the rest are people between night and day between a thing called love and making somehow a living. It is a rather cool picture, a love letter to Paris; no fast actions; there is only one outburst of hate, when Paulo shoots Marc, to stop him to tell the inspector about the Deauville Raid. You can see nice details from the time one is missing for over forty years now, for instance the small 4 door Renault with the engine in the rear and the doors opening the wrong way. And I liked the two ladies dressed by Ted Lapidus in the bar, I liked the one - armed bandit in the closet, the three wheel mini car being purposely put in front of the oncoming huge convertible (that is pure Tati), early tourists in American sailor uniforms driving motorcycles, and the relationship between Bob and the Cop. One can hear and see, that they are in the same business.
Buildings underneath Sacré Coeur are still, where they used to be. But nowadays the area is pretty well redecorated. Girls and lovers, gamblers and gangsters, inspectors and thieves, concierges and barmen are where they are supposed to be. You watch the picture and look into an authentic past, because Melville made a (as he would have said)movie' about stuff he not only knew from books or the screen. The picture includes one of the best gambling sequences in film history. Toward the end when Bob is in the Casino and starts to win Decae films and catches some great moments at the gambling tables and puts them together to a summary of post war melancholy and oncoming Gaullism.
Melville liked to have the film redone in colour. I don't. Still it was remade by Neil Jordan and called THE GOOD THIEF in colour and scope. I have my doubts if Melville would have liked that one. He cant object anymore. He was a conservative man.
Michael Zabel, Offenbach/Rodenbach