Bob le flambeur

Once a renowned criminal, the ageing ‘Bob the gambler’ (Roger Duchesne) now restricts his shady dealings to the small time betting houses of Paris. As life goes aimlessly on, with his protégé Paulo (Daniel Cauchy) and the wayward young Anne (Isabelle Corey) in tow, Bob gets wind of a huge casino heist that appears too tantalising to pass up. As Bob organises his great last score, the inspector Ledru (Guy Decomble), whose life was once saved by Bob, monitors his old acquaintance closely, but can he stop him in time?

Jean-Pierre Melville’s early gangster noir contains all the elements that would lead the director to make this genre his own and points to subsequent classics, such as Le Doulos, Le Samourai and Un Flic. Henri Decae’s stark photography captures the mood of the Parisian underworld, while the meticulous detail of the heist is brilliantly executed. The film holds its own up there with other classics of the genre, such as Dassin’s Rififi or Kubrick’s The Killing.

Beyond the simmering suspense that grips us throughout the film, Melville’s guile shines in the almost documentary like exposition of a fascinating yet tragic demi-monde. He films his environment and characters with such care and depth in order to transcend generic codes and offer a humanistic view of an unforgiving world, where the pursuit of riches corrupts the good in all players involved.

An enthralling and influential work (indeed it was remade by Neil Jordan almost 50 years later as The Good Thief with Nick Nolte), this film is a model for all heist flicks.