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The story is great, original, it would have been a great movie if it had a big cast, with great actors like Jean Paul Belmondo, Lino Ventura, Jean Gabin or Alain Delon. And, if it had been directed by Jean-Pierre Melville or Henri Verneuil, it would have been a masterpiece. Henry Silva is the same as in any other movie. Georges Géret is not as good as in other films, his final scene, when he dies holding on with his hands on the fence, is really embarrassing. Philippe Clay and Yves Afonso are OK. The best is André Pousse.

I think this is the best film Jean-Claude Roy ever made. It reminds fondly the Lautner-Audiard films of the late 60s-early 70s, with the same team of legendary actors : André Pousse, Georges Géret, Dalban, Philippe Clay... It's such a pleasure to see them together ! That film shouldn't be so underrated - in fact, I think it's simply completely unknown, and that's a real shame, because due to its cynicism, its cast, its humor and its music (Bernard Gérard stands here at the heaven of European funk-masters alongside with Piero Umiliani), it stands the comparison with Lautner's works, although it looks - and actually WAS - really cheaper. If you can, prefer the French version, for its clever dubbing of Henry Silva's voice (made by an American actor whose name I can't remember living at the time in Paris), because in English you don't have any equivalent to the inimitable voice of André Pousse.

It was very trendy in those years to hire American actors :René Clément had done it several times notably for "le Passager de la Pluie" where Charles BRonson played opposite Marlene Jobert.Henry Silva plays the American gangster here, a deserter (he was a marine).His strange face could have been used to good effect ,had he been properly directed.

The director's career essentially consisting of porno movies (it shows in the scene in the private nightclub 'l'Hippodrome" where greybeards play dice (big dice) to "win" the local "bunnies" ),what can we expect from him in the thriller field?Not much and that's exactly what we get.

The gangsters,the firemen and the cops are so naive ,so dumb (the fireman takes the biscuit: six cars are burning but he does not care)one can only regret the director did not make a spoof on gangsters movies like "le Cave se Rebiffe" .But ,with the eventual exception of André Pousse ,all the actors take themselves seriously .The plot has enough holes to fill the Albert Hall ;one example: a dangerous gangster has escaped from jail and the Police do not seem to bother.