Les Tueurs de San Francisco

Any semi-serious movie buff or even casual viewer should be able to see that this film practically screams "Coen Brothers," 30 years before their time. The creepy blond character in "Fargo" is a dead ringer for the creepy blond bad guy in "Once a Thief," right down to the hairstyle. And the general ambiance of many scenes, as well as the ironic plot twists near the end, indicate that this movie was a big influence on the Coen bros, and to some extent, "where they went to school."

It should also be noted that though this is film noir, it's also "hip" film noir, a rare breed that includes Larry Moyer's "The Moving Finger" and precious few others of the time. In fact, both these movies were too hip for their time.

French heartthrob Alain Delon made his US leading man debut in this adaptation of Zekial Marko's novel "Scratch a Thief" about an ex-thief in San Francisco trying to stay out of trouble but fingered for the murder of a Chinese storekeeper by the police sergeant (Van Heflin) who hates him. Meanwhile, the thief's shady older brother (Jack Palance) is in town, needing the kid's help in pulling off a job. Ordinary crime plot given amusingly jazzy, frenetic direction by Ralph Nelson, who sets the scene with a flashy nightclub drum solo that is crazy-cool. Screenwriter Marko really lays on the '60s-era jive talk, some of it mind-boggling, while Nelson's quasi-European handling gives the picture an arresting look in vivid black-and-white. Some of the interesting supporting characters include a fey platinum-blond punk (years ahead of his time), plus Ann-Margret as Delon's put-upon wife. The talky lulls are given a boost by the slangy dialogue, and the location shooting in San Francisco is a big asset. **1/2 from ****

Lets face it. The 'film-noir' period was already over its peak and as good as death already in 1965, when this movie was released. This movie is a late attempt to revive the film-noir genre, with some big names involved. They partly succeeded. The movie works quite well as a crime/thriller movie but it lacks the certain style, characters and subtle style of film-making to consider this movie a good attempt at the film-noir genre.

All of the classic ingredients are present here but everything doesn't always connect very well. Some of the story lines are underdeveloped and it often leaves more questions than answers. I still don't fully understand what the point was of the robbery/killing in the beginning of the movie. Some of the events in the movie feel silly but it luckily doesn't make the movie any less pleasant to watch. So even though everything in the movie is far from flawless it still is a good enough crime/thriller to watch.

The main plot line isn't anything too terribly exciting but it's told in a good way. Director Ralph Nelson brought the standard and thin story well to the screen and even manages to make the movie look exciting, thrilling and surprising.

The musical score by Lalo Schifrin is quite odd but its suits the movie very well and therefor I liked it.

The characters and cast are good and interesting. OK so Alain Delon might not be the best leading man but the supporting cast certainly compensates for this. Ann-Margret shows she is a great actress although she mainly only does some screaming and crying in this movie. It gets a bit too much after a while. Van Heflin and Jack Palance were also great and John Davis Chandler beautifully plays a ruthless villainous looking villain. He absolutely stole the show in most of the sequences he was present in.

A good enough crime/thriller that deserves to be seen.

7/10

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In the wake of having watched Alain Delon in Joseph Losey's THE ASSASSINATION OF TROTSKY (1972), I decided to check out three other vehicles of his I had taped off TV over the last few months – beginning with this one, which emerges to be just as pretentious as Losey's film! Best described as a beatnik noir, we've seen this film's story told a million times before – that of a criminal who can't escape his past, dogged as much by old associates as by an obsessive police nemesis. Consequently, director Nelson and cinematographer Robert Burks (best-known for his longtime collaboration with Alfred Hitchcock) handle the generally clichéd material for more than it's worth – even if my viewing was somewhat compromised by the film being panned-and-scanned.

Delon and Ann-Margret make for a handsome couple - although she occasionally tries too hard and her histrionics seem more at home in a Tennessee Williams melodrama; Van Heflin is appropriately world-weary as the aging cop, Jack Palance is typically intense as a crime boss and Delon's elder brother. The rest of Palance's gang is made up of the odd-looking and memorably creepy John Davis Chandler and Tony Musante – while Jeff Corey appears as Heflin's irate superior. The film's screenwriter Zekial Marko (adapting his own novel) is featured in an unintentionally hilarious supporting role as a druggie who shares a cell with Delon – we follow his case intermittently throughout (for no very good reason other than to justify the similarly hapless Delon's pursuit of crime) via newspaper clippings, denoting Marko's conviction to the gas chamber and eventually his suicide! The film is aided by a jazzy score courtesy of Lalo Schifrin, who seemed to specialize in crime/police dramas. The elaborate heist half-way through is an expected highlight, which then leads to a predictably downbeat and body-strewn climax.

The plot is threadbare, the principals don't really look the part, the pace is much too slow, but this film still has some points of interest.

First, the location work. Plenty of San Francisco footage, though much of it at night (this is film noir, after all). The city looks different now, but many of the setups are in areas that haven't changed too much.

Then there's Anne-Margret, still in her sex-kitten stage but trying hard to break out of it. She's really not up to the mommy part, though she gives it a good try. Her character is about the only sympathetic one in the film, save . . .

Van Heflin's. I've always liked him. He's pretty good as the cop who hounds Delon, though he won't pass for Italian any day of the week, or will Delon, for that matter. It's interesting to contrast this detective with Steve McQueen's Frank Bullit or Clint Eastwood's Harry Callahan. They're all SFPD and only a few years separate their stories, but Heflin's Mike Vido is from another world. Wait until you see who he lives with.

And then there's John David Chandler's homicidal homosexual-child molester, a really nasty characterization you won't encounter today and not often then. Oh yes, he's also a sadist.

Finally, there's Jack Palance's equal opportunity crew: two Italians (though I think their surname is Croatian), a Jew, a Greek, and a Chinese undertaker. Somehow they pull off the heist, though just barely.

Recommended if you enjoy hard-core noir, Anne-Margret, or Heflin, otherwise steer clear.