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Made at pretty much the halfway point between Melville's Bob le Flambeur (1955) and Le Samourai (1967), Le Doulos contains elements of both. Belmondo plays Silien, a man thought by some to be a police informer. ("Doulos" means informer or Finger Man, which is the title in English.) Reggiani plays Maurice, who has just gotten out of prison and is getting involved with another robbery attempt. His friend Silien offers to help, and the film revolves around the tension over whether Silien is an informant or not. It's another exploration by Melville of the grey area between those who enforce the law and those who break it, of the uneasy yet powerful relationships that can develop between people on "opposite" sides of the line.

Belmondo and Reggiani are both excellent. The black and white photography by Nicholas Hayer - who also did Cocteau's Orphée and Clouzot's Le Corbeau - is superb, from the wonderfully atmospheric opening sequence (Melville may be THE master of opening sequences) to the stunning, Cocteau-like shot of a man staring into a mirror that closes the film. The plot line gets a bit complicated at times, with rival gangs, a previous jewel heist, murder, betrayals, love affairs, etc. Hard to follow. Which is to say, it's a classic example of film noir. And the jazzy soundtrack by Paul Misraki heightens the cool, noirish sensibility of the film. Whatever his failings as a director, Melville definitely knew how to create a great atmosphere.

Le Doulos is definitely worth checking out, especially by fans of film noir, Melville or Belmondo.

Le Doulos is a very good gangster noir from Jean-Pierre Melville. Like his other crime films its American influenced but with French style. It's really a recreation of the American film-noir of the 40's in 60's Paris. As such it's very stylised. Despite the time period, all of the actors look, act and dress like characters out of a hard-boiled movie from the 1940's. Trench coats and hats are the order of the day despite not being in the least bit in fashion in the 60's. The actors were all instructed to perform in a very controlled stylistic way that mimicked those old movies. This was seemingly something that Jean-Paul Belmondo found very unsatisfying, not surprising from an actor famed for working with Jean-Luc Godard whose style was extremely loose and off-the-cuff by comparison.

Like noir, this one has a cast of characters where none are good in the traditional sense. It's about a thief who has just been released from prison. He immediately gets involved in criminal activity but is sold out to the police. He suspects his best friend is a police informer ('le doulos'). It's about betrayals, friendship and people assuming the worst of each other; the honour/dishonour of thieves. Of course, this being a noir, things do not run in a straightforward manner and there are several twists and turns before we reach the end. Look out also for an early cinematic nude scene featuring Fabienne Dali who also made a memorable appearance as a sexy witch in Mario Bava's Gothic horror film Kill, Baby…Kill!

DOULOS: THE FINGER MAN (Jean-Pierre Melville - France/Italy 1962).

Jean-Paul Belmondo is the duplicitous Silien, underworld criminal and police informer and Serge Reggianni as the dogged villain Faugel. Belmondo, who normally is a much more outgoing actor, has to play a very distant role as a gangster, much different than the wanna-be gangster he played in "AU BOUT DE Soufflé" (1959) by Godard (I know it's not soufflé but the IMDb doesn't accept my correct spelling). That's probably why Alain Delon became Melville's first choice in his later films, because Delon naturally had a much more restrained performance.

Based on a novel from the famous série noire crime series, he made a film what he called 'my first real policier'. Perhaps there's a little too much emphasis on plot that has more than a few loopholes, as most film-noirs did, Melville's favorite inspiration for many of his films. I do think film-lovers are trying a little too hard to make this film into some kind of new forgotten masterpiece. By Melville standards, it still has quite a competent plot and does make sense but there's not really a central character like Bob in BOB LE FLAMBEUR or Jeff Costello in LE SAMOURAI to root for.

Melville very much belonged to the Parisian post-war intelligentsia who were infatuated with American literature, music and above all, film. He was an ardent film lover and reputedly saw at least five films a day for a long period of his life. In LE DOULOS his obsession with American cinema becomes apparent. They drive American cars (and the occasional cool Citroën), behave like gangsters in American crime films of the '40s and Melville loves to use newspaper headlines to heighten some of plot elements, just like Godard famously did in AU BOUT DE Soufflé. French Melville aficionado Ginette Vincendeau put it best: 'Melville was a director very much influenced by American cinema but by no means someone who made copies of American films; in fact, he was a very French filmmaker'.

I wasn't instantly captivated by this film as with LE SAMOURAI (1967), but the whole atmosphere, the ambiance, stunning camera movements and an almost perfect music score still make this a very agreeable Melville. This is cinema with style and class and a quintessential addition to the French gangster genre.

Camera Obscura --- 8/10

Jean-Pierre Melville's direction is a glorious tribute to classic American crime films of the 1940's and early 50's but has also a strong touch of originality. The story is set in the early 1960's Paris, but these criminals seem to live in a world of their own. It's a Hollywood film-noir underworld, where men constantly wear hats and trench coats like Humbrey Bogart, brandishing revolvers, drinking bourbon or scotch and driving big American cars, that look like tanks compared to small ordinary European vehicles around. The overall mood is dark and threatening and with the right kind of lightning and photography many scenes seem like epitomes of the best stuff the genre has ever offered.

Compared to its predecessors The Fingerman gives some new shine to the term 'hard boiled'. Women can still be fatal femmes in some sense, but mostly they get pushed around and are allowed attention only when men really need them. They are only there to pass information and sexual favors, nurse wounds and serve as minor helping hands. And when it comes to violence, they get the same rough treatment as any man.

Belmondo's role leans heavily to Dix Handley (Sterling Hayden) in John Huston's adaption of 'The Asphalt Jungle', only with a more visible dark side. His character is a strange and hypnotic mixture of honesty, treachery and bursts of sadistic violence. The way his tone of voice changes to more tender just before assault or murder is gripping. Serge Reggiani, although equally capable to violence, seems more mature and easier to identify with. Both men strongly overpower the happenings but not their own destinies. Fate still has its usual final word, as anyone familiar with characteristics of the genre well knows.

The plot with several flashbacks and changes of time and place may feel a little complex at the beginning, but opens up to be a very rewarding movie experience towards the end. This film easily equals and even surpasses many of its obvious paragons. Of the few Melville's films I have seen at this point this one became an instant favorite in a single viewing even beating the almighty Le Samurai. Very warmly recommended.

Described by some as an example of 'film noir' or even as an early 'neo-noir', this is the work of auteur, Jean Pierre Melville and as such less a genre work and more his very own. Unlike the American originals, largely spewed out in their dozens and at great speed and low cost, often as B pictures geared to appeal to as large an audience as possible with elements as sensational as could be got away with, this Melville picture has more lofty aims. The director was in the French resistance during the Nazi occupation during war and as he shows here is much more interested in the world of police informers and collaboration than the more classic 'noir' tropes of isolation, alienation and the temptations of the 'femme fatale'. Nevertheless there are some wonderful sequences, like the opening shot on location beneath the railway lines and we have cinematographer, Nicolas Hayer {Panique (1946) and Orphee (1950)} to thank for these because Melville, largely financing his own projects, was always working to a budget and much of his interior studio set pieces here are well below expected standards and jar horribly with the more expansive and expressionist exteriors. Being French, the film also has far too much dialogue and a few scenes in the middle and an extended one towards the end are a considerable drag on what should have been a much more snappy affair. Finally, whilst I acknowledge that there are several US 'noir' classics that have nonsensical of difficult to follow plots, this effort seems far too unnecessarily complicated for the simple tale that it ultimately is.

Another tale of dishonor among thieves and another masterpiece from Jean- Pierre Melville but this one's a little more complicated than most. "Le Doulos" is slang for a hat but in criminal circles it also means a police informer. The informer here is Jean-Paul Belmondo and he seems to be playing one side against the other, police and crooks, but to what end? The movie is tortuously plotted until it's all very neatly and beautifully tied up at the end and it pays homage, not just to the great Hollywood gangster movies, but to such classically poetic French films of the thirties such as "Le Jour se Leve" and "Les Quai Des Brumes". Belmondo is, of course, magnificent and SergeReggiani is suitably fatalistic as the gangster who sets everything in motion. An absolutely essential movie.

Trust no one in this convoluted French New Wave thriller, which (on its surface) seems to concern an ex-con who suspects a former partner of duplicity. Every character in the film is looking to double-cross someone, but in the end only the audience is successfully hoodwinked, fooled into attempting to unravel a confusing tangle of unexplained and seemingly unmotivated events, before the jigsaw scenario is cleverly assembled in retrospect. It takes a certain mental alacrity to keep pace with who is plotting what to whom (and why), but the wide-awake will be rewarded with a satisfying solution, although perhaps the final scenes take advantage of one irony too many. Without its complex narrative structure the film would be a more or less straightforward plagiarism of American B-movie crime drama conventions, proving yet again how a skillful imitation can make even the most familiar material fresh again.

Le Doulos is not as well-known as Melville's later colour pictures, but very much undeservedly so. Gangster films rarely manage to surprise their audience with the plot (unless they sacrifice logic as so often in Raymond Chandler's stories), but here we have an exception. This one is entirely logical and entirely surprising; an extraordinary gangster story of trust, betrayal and code of honour. It is impossible to correctly guess the outcome even when you are through 2/3 of the film.

Highly recommended.

This is objectively a truly good movie.

Melville's direction is cold and efficient throughout.

This French crime thriller additionally wins thanks to Belmondo's performance in the lead role, stylish men, solid sometimes innnovative cinematography and a relatively taut plot.

My personal problem, however, was with the latter, as it was sometimes difficult to understand, which sometimes affected comprehension and made the film lose in value. But that's a first viewing problem.

Next time, I am sure, I will appreciate this film more, as cinematic legends like Tarantino and Scorsese did.

(1962) Le doulos/ The Hat CRIME DRAMA (In French with English subtitles)

Adapted by the novel by Pierre Lesou co-written and directed by Jean-Pierre Melville that has Maurice Faugel (Serge Reggiani) gunning down a former colleague taking his money and jewels and the reason was oblivious until the movie continues why it happened. We then see Silien (Jean-Paul Belmondo) enter the picture who is supposed to loyal to him who brought tools to open a safe with him hanging around with his live in girlfriend, Thérèse Dalman (Monique Hennessy). And upon Maurice doing the job, it appears Silien may have double crossed him, since when he notices police are onto him and they attempted to flee, one of them died from his injuries while Maurice was then saved by an unknown assailant. At that point, Maurice presumes the person who double cross him was Silien.

More often than not, French gangster films that owe so much to early American gangster films come off as cakes with more icing than cake. This is not the case with Jean-Pierre Melville, whose Bob le Flambeur is a powerful tale of a compulsive gambler who attempts to right his own life and the lives of those he cares for. In Le Doulos, the story focuses on a gangster, Maurice, just released from prison who immediately gets back on the other side of the law and begins to get involved in the ever-constant struggle between French police and organized crime.

This film obviously owes a great deal to early American gangster films, as so much of Melville does, but what makes it slightly different is the complexity of character and plot Melville injects into the story. There are numerous layers of action going on here; each character is as duplicitous as possible so motivations are always in question and the audience never really can tell who exactly is on which side until the final conclusion. Yet, it is never too confusing and never dull to watch as Melville invites us to explore closer the beautiful fluid camera work and the stunning and stark cinematography.

The acting is also quite effective, especially Serge Reggiani as the world-worn Maurice whose face says more than anything else, and French cinema legend Jean-Paul Belmondo as the too cool for his own good Silien. All in all, a very entertaining and well-made caper thriller that compared to today's shoot 'em ups consists of more than enough cake with the right amount of icing as well.

How I would've loved to see this movie on the big-screen; as it is, one of the only set-backs in watching it is that the current Kino VHS copy is of poor quality, with the kind of subtitles you can't read when it's with a white background, and the aspect ratio is off at times. But it is a kind of "lost" classic in some ways, harder to find than Jean-Pierre Melville's films on Criterion DVD (Le Cercle Rouge, Bob le Flabeur, and Le Samourai), but still as rich in his own style than with his other films. If at times it might not seem as much Melville as usual, it may be because it's based off a book by Pierre Lesou. But Melville still instills his distinctive flair at making old-fashioned crime stories involving criminals with codes of honor, police with some level of respect and intelligence, and a perfection of dead-pan dialog and silences.

The film also includes a star of the times- Jean-Paul Belmondo plays Silien, a sort of smooth operator of underdog criminals, who is friends with Maurice Faugel (Serge Reggiani, a man with soul in his face if that makes sense). Faugel, at the start of the film, does something that may or may not have been the right thing, but he still has to hide it, in the midst of gearing up for a heist (again, this IS Melville). The heist doesn't go as planned. There's also been another murder, which Silien cannot stand, even as he is placed in the realm of a police investigation. I hesitate to describe much else of the story; on a first viewing one may think there is too much exposition at times (in particular when Silien reveals some of the details later in the film to Faugel, with fades to flashbacks and so forth), and the double-crossings that occur make the story very twisty, in the perfunctory crime-novel sense of course. In some ways it's a little more novelistic in the storytelling than a film like Le Cercle Rouge.

The style of Le Doulos is a sumptuous feast for the eyes and senses. It isn't always fast and it isn't always slow, but when Melville wants a level of suspense he somehow brings it. Like all his other crime films, he's working in a framework akin to the American genre pictures of the late 30's and 40's- tough guys almost always shielding their emotions, kind to most women but not all (there's an interrogation scene by Silien with a woman that is effective, and rather disturbing in just the set-up of the woman), and a kind of fate that is and isn't expected with the characters. One might even try and make naturalistic comparisons with the story; Faugel with his own problems, Silien with his lonely but loyal life to his few friends, the police's professionalism.

But what really catches me with Le Doulos, like the best moments in Melville's films, is how he subverts the kind of expectations of the classic style of the 40's American crime films - dark shadows in the background coming into the foreground, creeping in on the characters, and usually basic camera moments - with the 'new-wave' sensibilities. There are certain shots that are stunning, some of which elude me even after seeing the film three times. The Silien scene I mentioned is one, but also note the hand-held use as the robbers run away from the cops after the heist; the extraordinary long-take in the police investigation (you almost forget that there isn't a cut); the occasionally very unusual angles put onto characters to add a certain 'kick' to the feeling behind it.

Despite the straightforward attitude of the characters, there is emotion behind the style. Many have said Melville's films are 'cool', very 'cool', or sometimes too 'cold' for their own good. Both could be attributed. But the coolness outranks everything else; Belmondo, by the way, is so cool in this film, so unflinchingly so at times (even if in sometimes a little ineffectual), it makes his performance in Breathless seem amateurish. Coincidentally, he is more like the Bogart character here than in Godard's film. Reggiani, too, gives an excellent supporting performance, usually without having to say anything. The climax of the film, where the characters come to a head in the 'Halo', is like the icing on the cake of the film.

It's rare to find a final ten minutes that adds as much to a film as the last ten minutes of Le Doulos. Up until then, it had been a twisty, intentionally and occasionally unclear narrative that got sorted out with a quick bit of exposition near the end, and then the film keeps going. What follows ends up providing a marvelously tragic cast to the whole affair, elevating everything that came before not with narrative trickery but with character depth.

The ethical code that Jean-Pierre Melville criminals live by is one of loyalty. They don't always keep to it, but that's the struggle in these hard times where the cops are always just around the corner. When Maurice (Serge Reggiani) gets out of jail he goes to visit Gilbert (Rene Lefevre), a fence dealing with the jewels and cash from a recent robbery organized by Nuttheccio (Michel Piccoli). Maurice borrows Gilbert's gun and shoots him with it, an action driven by the death of Maurice's girlfriend six years ago that Gilbert organized because she was going to play informant to the police. Maurice is also planning a small heist in the outskirts of Paris. The only people who know about it are his accomplice Remy (Philippe Nahon), his girlfriend Therese (Monique Hennessy), and his friend Silien (Jean-Paul Belmondo) who provides Maurice with some equipment for the job.

When the job gets interrupted by the police, in particular Inspector Salignari (Daniel Crohem), a friend of Silien, Maurice knows who set him up. It was Silien.

Here is where the film diverges into dueling narratives. Silien starts taking actions that are hard to discern on their own. He finds the jewels, cash, and gun that Maurice buried. He goes to Nutthecchio's club, reconnects with Nutthecchio's girl, Fabienne (Fabienne Dali) and brings her into his efforts to put the jewels into Nutthecchio's hands. All of this ends up feeling unconnected from everything. The effort to keep the audience in the dark is something that I generally don't appreciate, but Melville was a very good filmmaker and can make the individual moments compelling in their own right even if I feel a bit lost while watching, wondering how all of these pieces come together.

The other side is Maurice determined to take out Silien, convinced it was Silien who gave him up to the police. It's a reasonable conclusion, and he's hobbled by a gunshot wound to his arm. He can only go so far, and when the police find him at a bar after he leaves the house he's supposed to be recuperating at, he gets sent to jail for his probable involvement with the death of Gilbert and the robbery.

Everything gets sorted with Silien killing Nuttheccio and his confederate with the help of Fabienne, framing them for the murder of Gilbert. Maurice gets out of jail, and Silien explains everything. Silien was looking out for Maurice, figuring out who the real informant was, and trying to save Maurice.

The film up to this point has been pretty solid stuff. It intentionally keeps things from the audience to help keep up tension while giving us enough to keep us along. I was pretty happy with the film up to this point, not in love with it but pretty happy. The reveal of Silien's purpose through the whole film suddenly provides the grounding in the film. This is the ethical and moral code that defines Melville's main characters, and it's been hidden and obfuscated throughout the film. It's intentionally casting a negative light on Silien's actions, almost like it's from Maurice's point of view (despite seeing a whole bunch he can't see).

The problem is that Maurice was so convinced of Silien's guilt in setting him up and getting Remy killed that, in prison, he organized a hit on Silien. The final ten minutes becomes a chase against the clock as Maurice tries to save Silien, and it's what gives the film its emotional power. Up until that chase begins, the film is an interesting look at the criminal underworld. With the explanation and the knowledge of the hit, everything in the film up to that point gains a new character and elevates because of the revelation. It's the ideal twist.

It's weird to consider how much my opinion of the film as a whole moved up because of the ending. It took an interesting crime film and gave it a moral subtext that ended up permeating the whole story up to that point. It turned a good film into a great film in one final ten-minute segment.

Jean-Pierre Melville was unique amongst his French filmmaking brethren. The godfather of the French New Wave, though never really part of it, he proved that the French could take influences from America and make them decidedly their own, telling compelling stories in purely cinematic ways. Using the biggest French film stars like Belmondo once he got some real money, Melville was able to achieve sustained financial success and independence. Le Doulos is Melville being experimental with confidence in his own talent.

The movie strings out the ambiguity almost until the end, leaving Belmondo's actions (double-crosser or not?) highly confusing; when this is resolved in an expository sequence, one's thoughts might be to the effect of "so what," unless you like ambiguity for its own sake. The movie has a perfectly poised atmosphere, precise and spare at every stage, with both Belmondo and Reggiani expertly embodying aloof anti-heroes - Belmondo's two best friends are a thief and a cop respectively, symbolizing his position on that arc of self-defined morality previously inhabited by Bogart and others. At the end, looking back over the somewhat self-conscious and over-deliberate machinations, you realize the film's impressive form and control, but I find it hard to place much value on this kind of thing - character is pretty much jettisoned, and it becomes like moving chess pieces; the intellect is obvious, but it's a closed system, extremely limited by genre and the lonely path it's chosen to tread.

An interesting film noir that has all the elements one would expect of the gems of the 40s and 50s made in Hollywood: trench coat, hat, and gun.

Serge Reggiani is Maurice. Just released from prison, it is not long before he is set up by his supposed friend Silien (Jean-Paul Belmondo).

The cops are looking for who shot one of their own and who shot a fence. There is a lot of double crossing going on among the thieves.

The look and feel of the film is spectacular. The big cars, the scenes, the great music: it all works to make for an excellent noir experience.

The ending really surprises in a way I did not expect. Well, if I expected it, it wouldn't be a surprise would it? Just when everything gets tied together, it all comes undone again.

Damn, the music was perfect.

The French may or may not have invented film noir, but they certainly refined it. This film is no exception. For anyone who enjoys hard boiled crime fare, this film will be another feather in your cap. The plot concerns a petty thief (Jean Paul Belmondo)who did a hitch in prison for theft, gets involved in another caper right straight away. Jean Pierre Melville (who directed such noir fare as Army Of Shadows) shows a fine hand for dealing with the dregs of society in a film that is handsomely shot in atmospheric black & white. The print I had the pleasure to see is a brand new 35mm print that is a treat to behold on a cinema screen,proper. Belmondo,as well as the principal male cast members play the swine to perfection.

Burglar Maurice Faugel has just finished his sentence. He murders Gilbert Vanovre, a receiver, and steals the loot of a break-in. He is also preparing a house-breaking, and his friend Silien brings him the needed equipment. But Silien is a police informer...

American filmmaker Quentin Tarantino cited the screenplay for "Le Doulos" as being his personal favorite and being a large influence on his debut picture "Reservoir Dogs". This does not surprise me in the least. Melville really picked up the mantle of noir that the Americans had done in the 1930s and 40s, and then apparently just gave up on. Luckily, he did it right and influenced one of the greatest crime films of the 1990s.

What I love about Melville more than the story-telling or characters is actually the use of color. Just so crisp, with every shot capturing this gritty world as it should be.

The film had it's moments. But some of the twists seemed a bit pointless, it was like watching the New Wave version of the Dear Sister sketch