Trivia

Film debut of Italian ex-wrestler Lino Ventura.

This film revived Jean Gabin's career.

Martin Scorsese, in discussing with Spike Lee the films that influenced El irlandés (2019), says he screened this film with cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto. "It's a very famous early-'50s French gangster film with Jean Gabin," Scorsese said. "When I was shooting [Robert De Niro] in Casino (1995), I felt he was taking on the stature of a late-to-middle-age Gabin. He had a lot of power to him, but he had a serenity to him too and a coolness. Bob I felt was getting that way in Casino (1995). Grisbi has a similar [theme] in the sense that they are older gangsters in Paris, and they are getting involved in stuff they don't want to get involved with. It's really the tone, but I like the Gabin feeling of his deportment, how he presented himself. In fact, we used some of the harmonica music of Grisbi in the film, and Robbie Robertson did the harmonica based on the French noir music of the earl-'50s."

According to Daniel Cauchy ("Fifi"), his character originally was supposed to remain in the car until the classic showdown between Lino Ventura and Jean Gabin. He was commuting by air between another film being shot in Paris and this one, but director Jacques Becker thought it would be more expedient to have Gabin's character throw him out of the car before that.

René Dary, who was considered Jean Gabin's worthy successor during the Occupation, played his right-hand man here.