Rififí en la ciudad

Spanish/French co-production set in an unnamed Central American state on the eve of an important election, Sargento Detective Miguel Mora (Fernando Fernan Gomez) bent on uncovering the dark activities of popular politician Maurice Leprince (Jean Servais) who deals with cocaine business. But Mora in detained by his hoodlums , being mistreated , beaten and wounded . However, thugs working for Leprince began to be murdered one by one as well. Then , the chief Inspector (Antonio Prieto) suspects Miguel can be the killer .

This average-budget film contains thrills , a noir intrigue and lots of murders . It's a passable thriller directed by prolific filmmaker Jess Frank and also produced by his own production company, Manacoa Films along with Albatros SA . Here Franco manages to give us an adequate ambient , an evocative production design by Teddy Villalba , being rightly narrated , including a criminal plot enough to keep you intrigued throughout the flick . Based on the novel "Vous Souvenez-vous de Paco?" written by Charles Exbrayat and well adapted by the same Jesus Franco . The picture was well starred by one of the best Spanish actors , Fernando Fernan Gomez, who formerly had directed to Jesus Franco in ¨Extraño Viaje¨ . Furthermore , two French players who previously worked in the successful ¨Rififi¨ , Jean Servais and Robert Manuel . The Spanish support cast is frankly good , as Agustin Gonzalez , Manuel Gas , Sergio Mendizabal , Antonio Prieto , Luis Marin , Antonio Jimenez Escribano , among others . The picture belong to Franco's first period in which he made acceptable pictures such as ¨Gritos en Noche¨, ¨Miss Muerte¨ or ¨Necronomicon¨, developing a consolidated professionalism . However , his career got more and more impoverished in the following years, but his endless creativity enabled him to tackle films in all genres, from "B" horror to erotic films.

Atmospheric cinematography in black and white by Godofredo Pacheco filmed on Mediterranean Spanish locations . Good musical score by Daniel White , Franco's usual musician , including Jazzy soundtrack , wonderful songs and musical numbers . The motion picture was well directed by Jesus Franco. Jesus uses to sign under pseudonym , among the aliases he used, apart from the names Jess Franco or Franco Manera, were Jess Frank, Robert Zimmerman, Frank Hollman, Clifford Brown, David Khune , Toni Falt, James P. Johnson, Charlie Christian, David Tough , among others. Franco used to utilize usual marks such as zooms , nudism , foreground on objects , filmmaking in ¨do-it-yourself effort¨ style or DIY and managing to work extraordinarily quickly . In many of the more than 180 films he's directed he has also worked as composer, writer, cinematographer and editor. His first was "We Are 18 Years Old" and the second picture was ¨Gritos en la Noche¨ (1962) , the best of all them , also titled "The Awful Dr. Orlof" , it's followed by various sequels such as El Secreto del Dr. Orloff (1964) aka "The Mistresses of Dr. Jekyll" , " Orloff y el hombre invisible (1970) aka "Dr. Orloff's Invisible Monster" and finally "Faceless" (1987) . Jesús's influence has been notable all over Europe . From his huge body of work we can deduce that Jesús Franco is one of the most restless directors of Spanish cinema and often releasing several titles at the same time. Many of his films have had problems in getting released, and others have been made directly for video. More than once his staunchest supporters have found his "new" films to contain much footage from one or more of his older films.Jesús Franco is a survivor in a time when most of his colleagues tried to please the government administration. He broke up with all that and got the independence he was seeking. He always went upstream in an ephemeral industry that fed opportunists and curbed the activity of many professionals. But time doesn't pass in vain, and Jesus' production has diminished since the 90s .

This movie in crisp, expertly lighted black and white has not one boring second. It may not be the greatest piece of cinematic art, but there is a lot of artistic ambition on display so that the movie may well suck you in for the odd 90 minutes.

The title is a rip off from Jules Dassin's masterpiece Rififi Chez les Hommes. The main villain here is none other than Belgian character actor Jean Servais who played the top gangster in the original Rififi. The story line reminded me more of Dashiell Hammett's The Glass Key: The Servais character is a gangster and night club owner who also runs for senator. The political campaign takes up quite some time, with a huge mass of Servais posters in the streets, a propaganda march in a public space, a full fledged political speech and Servais kissing an old woman and later complaining to his aides that she smelled of onions. A police informer and ladies man close to the Servais character was killed (he is not deposited on the steps of a police station but thrown through the window into a police man's private residence – which might give an idea of the degree of violence dealt out here) and it is basically about the search of the killer and a succession of further killings to avenge that death. The negative nature of politics in general takes quite a lot of space which always surprises me a little in movies that were apparently made in Spain during the Franco regime. Besides Servais there are a lot of really picturesque character actors of both sexes on display.

Those who know Jess Franco's work only by his later, graphic films might be surprised by Rififi in the City, a solid film-noir.

The book Immoral Tales compared Rififi in the City to The Lady from Shanghai, but there is only one scene, a clandestine meeting at an aquarium, that is a direct homage to the Welles film. A more fitting comparison would be Fritz Lang's The Big Heat. Franco is a film fan, so in addition to the Welles and Lang references, the director sprinkles homages to The 39 Steps, Kiss of Death, and probably other classic films as well. These add to the viewing fun of Rififi in the City without taking away from the its grim tone.

The plot has Detective Miguel Mora obsessively chasing after politician Maurice Leprince, a well connected official who is responsible for most of the vice in the unnamed city. Leprince, an ex-Nazi, seldom gets his hands dirty, leaving that to his bodyguards and a shady nightclub manager, Puig. As the film opens, Detective Mora might have his man. Juan, an informer, has the proof. Then, Juan disappears, and Mora begins needling Leprince to return the missing man. After Juan's dead body is thrown into Mora's house, the detective becomes even more determined to nail the politician. Mora is not alone. Someone else is avenging Juan, murdering Leprince's bodyguards one at a time.

Rififi in the City works as a film-noir. It features a good hero and villain. The ending is surprisingly downbeat. Even the mystery angle works better than expected. There are stumbles. Franco is not good at directing action scenes. Thus, the police raid on the nightclub at the climax of the film, which should be the film's set piece, comes across as haphazard and a missed opportunity.

Still, Rififi in the City stands as one of the director's best made films. It might be too much of a standard film for some of the Franco fanatics, but it is a good one to show those who think of Franco as only a hack director of sex films.

I know it's hard to keep track of the endless mumber of movies Jess Franco carriedout during his 4 decades career ...sometimes 3 o 4 at a time , but if someone asks me to list only three among his more remarkable this would be one of those that would made the cut.

Don't think for a second this is up to the Rififi's standards , Jess probably thought that could get some extra publicity by having Jean Servais so tried to sell this as a kind of Rififi follow up , but sadly all similarities ended up in the title .

As a film noir it turns out to be quite weak at some points but it's also true that , as it happens with most of Jess' flicks , Rififi en la ciudad has its charms . Apparently action is located in an undetermined South American country but actually Jess filmed all the action in the south of in Spain and even with a restricted budget ambiance are well crafted and manages to give us the atmosphere Jess intended . Plot itself it's not a wonder, classical search for a killer mixed up with some revenge touches but is enough to keep you interested throughout the film . Main assets here is that Jess is not trying to do here his usual mix of sexplotation ,vampires ,lesbanism . He steps in a different ground and provided the level of the Spanish cinema in the late 50's I would say that he accomplished a fine impersonation of the Dassin and Melville works and ambiance's.