L'aîné des Ferchaux

This film is more notable for the way it punctuates 1962 and the performance it teases out of Jean-Paul Belmondo than for being a typical Melville masterpiece. We can't help but lean into the real urban street scenes - Paris here, New York there, New Orleans towards the end of the journey - and feel ourselves being absorbed into a reality most of us know of but never experienced: One Rochechouart diner's newspaper headlines the precarious health of Edith Piaf, the neon signs of Broadway reference the Cuban Naval Blockade on one side of the street and West Side Story on the other, black & white segregation becomes plain as day as we draw closer to the American South, and so on.

Why are we taking this journey? Because disillusioned boxer Michel Maudet (Belmondo) has taken a job to help cunning, corrupt banker, Dieudonné Ferchaux (Charles Vanel) evade French justice. The banker couldn't fit the sociopath archetype better and - to him at least - Maudet seems like a naive apprentice. It quickly becomes apparent however that he has met his match and a power struggle ensues. Belmondo sidelines us with a performance that breaks the mould almost as much as his lead in that other Melville film, Léon Morin, Prêtre. Vanel is more intense and menacing than I've seen him in any other film, and that is quite something given his advanced years.

Interestingly, the film heads toward a sentimental conclusion that is somewhat out of character for Melville, and although his Direction is notably flawed here and there (I suspect due to language barrier issues with American actors), there's plenty to make up for it. Recommended? Absolutely.

This movie from 1963 , it is no shame , but its kinda caught up by time , like the cigarette smoking in this movie to be cool .

The premise , idea of the story , it could bring something , but the reality is this movie moves very slow , and has lack of everything.

There is no real tension , or action , or humor .

Its maybe " psychological movie " and i think somewhat vague at moments.

It offers a look back in time and that can be nice , some nostalgia, but thats it .

There is really not much there to watch this movie a second time years later .

Magnet of Doom , the title is surely cool , but its a bit much for this movie and would be more fitting for a new superhero movie .

And not a crime film, as also was L'ARMEE DES OMBRES, this Jean Pierre Melville's movie is an absolute gem, about a loser, Belmondo, to whom his fate permits him to get another chance to achieve his goals. A very American film scheme, but the plot itself is quite different then. Belmondo is as powerful here as he was in Melville's LE DOULOS, two years earlier. It is not a crime film, but a drama, exceptional drama, very bitter, sad, with an unique atmosphere. The jewel, the best of this movie is of course the face to face between Jean-Paul Belmondo and Charles Vanel; two generations meet. This is a tremendous films which obvious skills announce the further Melville's masterpieces.

As some of the other reviews have already stated, the print of the movie that is available is very poor. So it is not quite clear whether Melville wanted to have the washed-out look of the picture or whether it is just plain bad quality. Even rare TV screenings do not offer an improved version (ARTE). The relationship between the young ex-paratrooper/boxer/secretary (Belmondo) and the old bank owner/colonial adventurer (Vanel) is quite interesting and also stands for the generational conflict of the 1960s. Obviously, some of the plot is somewhat stretched but the tension between the main characters is excellently played out. Melville wanted Spencer Tracy for the Vanel part, but Tracy's health situation made any form of outdoor filming (not to mention insurance for this) Impossible. Belmondo, who is fooling around in Godard's "Breathless" and posing as a Bogart style tough guy, really plays a film noir character in this one. The way he treats his girlfriend at the beginning of the movie makes his protagonist almost unlikeable. In the damp Louisiana setting at the end of the movie, the whole affair really turns into a veritable noir.

"Magnet of Death" is a very unusual film from writer/director Jean-Pierre Melville. While the plot involves a crook, which is pretty typical of Melville, the plot itself is most unusual as the film is a meandering road picture--one with a scant plot and plenty of quiet moments.

When the story begins, Michel (Jean-Paul Belmondo) is fighting his last boxing match. He just hasn't got what it takes and he needs to find a new job. He soon learns about an unusual job...being the traveling secretary and body guard for a rich man, Mr. Ferchaux. As for Ferchaux, he's a rich and well respected crook...a banker who soon is bound to be arrested for his many misdeeds. His plan is to skip the country and live out his life abroad...and so Michel has to be willing and able to travel with him.

The pair head to the United States because much of Ferchaux's ill-gotten wealth is in banks in America. The plan, then, is to collect his money and head to South America where there is no extradition treaty with France. However, this is all easier said than done....banks in America keep delaying him and a could FBI agents seem to be following the two men. Instead of being a gangster picture, which it seemed to be at first, it becomes a road picture...and a meandering one at that. It was as if Melville didn't have a script at times and the pair just aimlessly travel the roads of America as they head south.

While the film is an interesting character study, it also meanders too much. Overall, an odd sort of picture...and one I mildly enjoyed but nothing more.