Titled more poetically L'Insoumis (The Disobedient) in its native France, this incredibly rare Alain Delon thriller recently turned up on American TV courtesy Turner Classic Movies. Delon plays Thomas, a de-mobbed soldier working for the OAS, the shadowy terrorist organization that supplanted governmental authority in the restive French colony of Algeria during the late 1950s and early 1960s. Thomas has been hired to kidnap a left-wing lawyer (Lea Massari), but when he falls in love with her and lets her escape, his OAS masters are none too pleased and the chase is on. Superbly shot in black and white by Claude Renoir and featuring a typically fine if sparse Georges Delerue score, Have I the Right to Kill also features a standout performance by the unheralded Viviane Attia as Thomas' sister Maria. Miraculously, the film's dubbed English-language track doesn't ruin things, but it would certainly be nice to see L'Insoumis in its original Francophone format.
Review of L'insoumis
