Le Doulos

If you like film noir you'll love this. One of the best movie endings ever - you just won't see it coming.

Very competent movie. who can do film noir better than the French? What I like about French movies of this genre is that they don't pull any punches, there is no sentimentality in them. Not one to set the world on fire but if you like French movies it's worth a watch.

One wonders why movies such as this acquire such positive critical reputations. It opens well, the camera work and direction is superb, but the basic story and script is so puerile, over-complex and ultimately boring that it is with difficulty that the viewer refrains from turning off long before the end. For a movie to be engaging one has to empathise with at least one of the characters - and here one doesn’t identify or sympathise with a single one, largely due to the fact that they are all flat and unconvincing caricatures. One wonders if the world portrayed ever in fact existed (I know France since the period the movie was made in) and one has an impression of American stereotypes being imposed on a French background. A rather bizarre feature is that many of the male characters never seem to take of their tightly-buttoned overcoats - not even the doctor who is removing a bullet from a very unconvincing shoulder wound. This is the cinema of poorly aimed shots that hit at fifty yards, killing some on the spot but nevertheless inflicting only slight puncture wounds on main protagonists who mange to carry on regardless and forget even to grit their teeth and grimace after the first five minutes. In addition to this there is a very nasty steak of misogyny running through the movie. This isn’t confined to one very nasty scene in which a woman is subjected to very graphic and brutal violence, but in the general attitude to women as chattels. In summary - a boring mess. If this movie were an episode in some modern TV crime series one wouldn't botehr with it. Don’t bother with it - I’m sorry I did.

The plot is either dire or incomprehensible. I had hoped that Melville's considerable reputation would have emerged to save things, but like Un Flic, it just went on until the end then mercifully stopped.

Not one of Melville’s better known works but up there with his best. Belmondo stars as the titular 'hat' (French slang for informer) toning down his usual flamboyant style to get in line with JP’s minimalist ethos. In any event, he’s outshone by Serge Reggiani (a ringer for Dana Andrews) as a fellow member of the criminal milieu and a painter/poet in his own right.

The story is familiar Melville territory: honour amongst thieves, though the dénouement is more Shakespearian tragedy. The style is film noir but with a distinctly French twist and, of course, Melville’s steely integrity. Footnote: Volker Schondorff was assistant director on this.