Brigade mondaine

I saw this film under dubbed into the English under the title Victims of Vice. It is a sleazy thriller that delivers on the naked flesh, but it is also unsurprising in every way.

The film opens with a blonde woman, naked under a coat, being shotgunned to death by a killer in leather and a biker's helmet. Two policemen are searching for the killer. The clues are the drugs in the dead woman's body and reports of a boyfriend that drove a white convertible. The film then switches to this boyfriend as he has a new pickup, also young and blond. It soon becomes clear that he is grooming her for a rich older man with kinky tastes.

Victims of Vice has hottie French blondes in various stages of undress, an 80's synth score by Cerrone, and that is about all. I don't want to suggest that the film is unwatchable, for with the female cast, it is not. Instead, Victims of Vice is just overly familiar. There are the mismatched cops, the druggie snitch, the politically connected bad man, and even the girlfriend-used-as-bait climax. The film's script offers no surprises.

Victims of Vice reminds me a little of another 1980's low budget French crime film, also directed by a filmmaker more known for sex than action. That film was Death Brigade from Max Pecas. That film, while no classic, was better than Victims of Vice.