Filmed over a painstaking period of two years, such was Jean-Pierre Melville's attention to detail. Daniel Cauchy, who plays Paolo, found time to make four other films in that period.
Jean-Pierre Melville auditioned Alain Delon for the character of Paolo. He rejected him for fear he would steal the show.
The film is considered a precursor to the French New Wave films that started in 1959.
Stanley Kubrick once said in an interview he gave up doing "Crime Films" because Jean-Pierre Melville did the greatest with Bob le flambeur (1956) and Jacques Becker did the second best with Touchez pas au grisbi (1954). He later directed Naranja mecánica (1971) however stating he never considered it a "crime film", but a socio-political film.