Mélodie en sous-sol

An old gangster (Jean Gabin) wants to plan a last robbery before retiring. He asks a young man (Alain Demon) met in jail for a partner. The story may look classical but it's played very fine. The most interesting thing in this movie is the dialogue by Michel Audiard. It's amazing ! As good as ever, so watch this film in french language.

It's also the farewell to an old world which disappears little by little because the time of old gangsters is over. It's also funny to hear the characters talk in french postwar slang language.

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.

I don't know why this movie is so little-celebrated -- it's terrific. It's so assured. It brings in the worn and smooth Jean Gabin for his last job (of course), and through some exchanges of witty banter gives us some time to get to know him and his wife before introducing his former cellmate, Alain Delon, as the leather-jacketed toughie. They're both excellent here, especially Gabin, who's polite but still certainly in control. He gives a wryness, like a fat Orson Welles, to his performance. The hot-tempered Delon gives a jolt of vitality to the picture. The entire movie is nice and slow, perfectly glamorous, the best of swinging, jazzy '60s cool. In a conventional movie, when Delon is told to seduce a ballerina so he and Gabin can gain a backstage pass to the theater, the courting would have ended with him buying her a drink. But in this film, it lasts for a good half an hour. And it's never boring. Those nice, long sequences explain everything fully. Not the plot, per se, but elements of the plot -- Delon's seducing of the dancer (which he mucks up more than once); Delon's brother-in-law, who in a normal movie would have been nothing but a side character, here is fully-fleshed out; Gabin's wife. And that long, languorous rhythm is what makes the major, lengthy set piece so memorable -- it's where Delon slinks around, slipping up occasionally, climbing up stairs, crawling through a ventilation shaft, and hiding in an elevator (very "Mission: Impossible"), eventually leading to the robbery. And it has one of the best endings to any caper movie that I've seen. 9/10

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.

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.