Le paria

First let me tell you that this movie is the only one directed by the second most famous French stunt man after Remy Julienne, I mean Claude Carliez, who also worked on many James Bond films and many other international movies; he also was a fence master for cloak and dagger or swashbuckler stuff. All kinds of stunts. This is a crime and adventure film, showing an outlaw who, after a major heist, escapes and hides in the mountain. Jean Marais offers us something totally different from what he did in the past. A desperate former soldier, a lost soldier, facing a lost in advance fate. Written by Claude Rank, for whom this lost soldier story was the trade mark for all his novels. Not a great film but more than worth, especially the opening scenes showing the train heist.

Claude Carliez was especially a stuntman and, to a lesser extent, an actor. As a stuntman, he was responsible for the stunts in most important French action films of the 60s and 70s, titles such as "Fantomas" (with the same Jean Marais), "Farewell, Friend" (with Alain Delon and Charles Bronson), " The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob" (with Louis de Funès), "The Return of the Tall Blond Man" (with Pierre Richard) and many films with the excellent, unique, Jean-Paul Belmondo. Living to the venerable age of 90, I assume that the stunt job kept him in very good physical condition. He is also responsible for stunts in famous films such as: "Moonraker" (1979), "A View to a Kill" (1985) and "The Italian Job" (1969). This is his only film as a director and I can say that he did a good job, the film is not bad. But far from being very good, there are several imperfections. For example, the acting of the actors is not of the highest quality. Some, such as the main star, Jean Marais, are not even the best choice for such a film, he plays only positive characters in all his other films, usually a knight, prime, forever romantic and in love. Here, being a tough gangster who robs a train stealing diamonds and, along the way, killing many other characters, is not convincing. As well as the particularly beautiful Marie-José Nat, who is too delicate and of fragile beauty to play the role of Lucia. The Corsican beauty played a special role in the Romanian film "The Dacians" (1966) and, unfortunately, left us in 2019. Horst Frank, specialist in all films in negative roles, a kind of brother from another mother of Klaus Kinsky, it's the same Horst Frank as usual, nothing out of the ordinary. The most convincing is Nieves Navarro in the role of Sylvia, she is known from many Italian police films and Italian westerns.