Cualquiera puede ganar

After a long period in jail, Charles (Jean Gabin) returns home and does not accept the plan of his wife Ginette (Viviane Romance) of moving to the countryside for a quieter life. He plots the heist of a casino and invites his young cell mate Francis (Alain Delon) and his brother-in-law to participate. The check-in two different hotels posing of millionaire and Charles' plan works perfectly. But when Charles finds that Francis has compromised his plan with a silly attitude, things go wrong.

"Mélodie en sous-sol" is another great French heist movie with Jean Gabin and Alain Delon. The story is well-developed and the ironic conclusion is very tense. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Os Gangsters da Casaca" ("The Gentlemen Gangsters")

For a part of public, the actors are the lead motif to see it. for other, the plot, reminding Ocean Eleven. a French Heist movie, good performance of Delon, same Gabin in inspired use of the nuances of character and the perfect end. nothing new at first sigh. in fact, the old flavors are the lead motif for see a film about a hold -up, its levels and portraits of men inside it.

It is well nigh impossible to imagine any other French actor of that time with box office clout who could have played Charles, the ageing, hard-bitten crook nearly as well as Jean Gabin. There is also Alain Delon, the new kid on the block, who was very keen to play the part of Gabin's partner in crime as it would hopefully increase his profile in the United States.

This is Gabin's third collaboration with director Henri Verneuil and has all the hallmarks of Verneuil's style: very little camera movement, good composition of shots and an eye for detail. Louis Page who worked a great deal with Gabin contributes stunning cinematography. I found the score to be rather intrusive but I am probably in the minority. Adapted by Albert Simonin from 'The Big Grab' this has tremendous dialogue by Michel Audiard which is a gift to any actor. Rita Cadillac is rather insipid as the love interest but there is a lovely cameo from Dora Doll as a high class hooker. On a nostalgic level it is great to see Viviane Romance as she and Gabin had first appeared on film together in 1936. The highlight of course is the casino heist which is filmed brilliantly. Slick, professional but rather 'cold' this film will always have an audience because of its subject matter and the two charismatic leads. The final sequence is beautifully edited and absolutely priceless.

Charles (a magnificent Jean Gavin) is a mature delinquent recently released from prison . He renounces the plans his wife (Viviane Romance) about a simple and easy life . Charles pretends the perfect robbery recruiting previous cell-mate named Francis (Alain Delon, actor most often used in Verneuil films) . The hold-up is carefully schemed on the vault of Cannes casino in the French Riviera . Meanwhile Francis falls in love with a gorgeous baller dancer (Rita Cadillac). Francis wielding a machine gun and black masked hides himself on the elevator shaft and heads to basement where is the locker room . But the bad luck does the crime gone awry.

This heist movie packs thrills , emotion , romance, extraordinary performances and exciting finale burglary . Sensational acting by two big star names , Gabin and Delon . Strong secondary cast with Viviane Romance as the spouse , Jean Carmet as a barman and the Spanish Jose Luis De Villalonga as a Casino chief . Interesting and thrilling screenplay by the prestigious Michael Audiard based on novel by Zekial Marko . Atmospheric cinematography in black and white by Louis Page . Lively musical score with catching leitmotif composed and conducted by Michael Magne .

The picture is splendidly directed by Henry Verneuil , a Turkish director working in France from the 40s . Although not a director of great reputation among the critics , his movies have almost all been aimed squarely at the commercial market . Verneuil is an expert on heist-genre such as he proved in ¨The Sicilians clan(68)¨ also with Gabin and Delon , ¨The burglars(1971)¨ with Omar Shariff and Jean Paul Belmondo , furthermore on Warlike genre : ¨Weekend at Dunkirk¨ and ¨The 25th hour¨ and even directed one Western : Guns of San Sebastian(68)¨. He seemed to have dropped out of the film-making after 1976 , but in 1981 unexpectedly reappeared with yet another of his caper film : ¨Thousand millions of dollars¨ . Rating : Exceptional and above average, a must see for French cinema lovers and Gavin and Delon fans.

Melodie En Sous-Sol (aka Any Number Can Win) is an enjoyable little caper, but the big trouble is that Time has not been very kind to it. It starts out with puzzled and chunky old Jean Gabin wandering through some then fashionable 1960's modern style streets and buildings accompanied by some brash and hip modern jazz music. And then the olde plot starts: man out of jail goes home and almost immediately tells his wife he's planning One Last Big Job involving the stealing of "about a billion" francs. This turns out to be a meticulously planned op, of the type Mission Impossible did so much better a few years later, and that (and Topkapi etc) was a team affair - however this was planned by Gabin even though Alain Delon seemed to have the lion's share of the work to do.

I bet all those cool swingers of the '60's never would have thought they and their music would date faster than those elegant artistes of the 30's! Favourite bits: Delon's long solo bit bringing the caper to fruition; the predatory Countess Doublianoff calling him no gentleman after he peremptorily dismissed her; the cops strolling by and describing the bags they were looking for - I wanted Delon to mutter something as did Peter Lorre in Arsenic And Old Lace when he thought he was going to be discovered; Gabin's expressionless expression.

Even though you may have seen it all before in films made since this one it was shot in a nice black and white with good acting and good production which holds the attention well - and it's all worthwhile anyway when you get to the delicious last 5 minutes when Delon's and Gabin's feelings were definitely too deep for words!