Anonima ricatti

This little gem is far more than a drama. It's a real french film noir set in Paris By Night, in the Pigalle district, the tourists in Paris know very well...

It tells the story of a bar owner who has to deal with racketeers. One night, he kills one of them in self defense. So he has to run, because he doesn't want to be accused of an ordinary murder. But he is friend with a cop - Bernard Blier - a man whom he saved life during the war. The cop brings his pal to justice, and to his trial. A fair one, as he promises to his friend. And during the trial, even the victim's friends, hoods of course, come to testify FOR the accused, and not against him, as we could expect. Do you know why? To get the accused discharge, so that... You guess the following...

As I saw this very scheme in CONTRE ENQUETE, made in 2006, starring Jean Dujardin.

I won't get any further about EN LEGITIME DEFENSE. The climax, in a garage, is exciting. It reminds me Joseph Pevney's SIX BRIDGES TO CROSS, starring Tony Curtis, or maybe I confound with another item. An American one.

Anyway, this little french thriller is perhaps old fashioned, with french slang from the fifties, but it is certainly not charmless.

The best of this entertaining thriller is the depiction of the restaurant in Pigalle with its clientèle:the hookers,a couple of gays,"artists" ;the subject of racketeering ,on the other hand ,is hackneyed,being anyway one of the main themes of these black and white Films Noirs of the late fifties/early sixties.The most interesting element is the strong friendship between a cop (Blier) and the restaurant's owner (Philippe Nicaud ,who,unlike his co-star ,is almost completely forgotten today).They were brothers in arms in WW2 and the restaurateur saved the detective's life then.

This male camaraderie is to suffer great hardships when Nicaud is involved in a murder (in self-defence);the trial is a great moment of fun: the judge tells one of the witnesses (a whore) that her language is refined :"I was a former teacher!"she replies .But even if the defendant is acquitted ,will he escape unscathed for all that?

Pierre Mondy is excellent as the villain;and as the former user has already pointed it out,the final scene in a garage is solid film noir.