I’m slowly growing to be more of fan of the work of Jean-Pierre Melville. Take this crime thriller for instance which tells the story in a very straightforward way. The story itself is intricate only because of the many characters involved and how they must interact with one another. Events play out so organically and unpredictably that it doesn’t feel much like a movie at all. It’s always a pleasure to watch competence in action but this film makes the point that often pure chance plays its part as well.

Notorious gangster Gustave Minda, or Gu to his friends and compatriots, escapes from prison and becomes subject of a national manhunt. In Paris, his sister Manouche runs a bar that is attacked by a rival gang. When she and her loyal henchman Alban are cornered at home by gunmen, Gu turns up just in time to save them. Commissaire Blot of the Paris police deduces that it was Gus who shot them as the corpses were disposed in the same place as a previous killing. Gus and Manouche make plans to flee to Italy but Gus is reluctant to retire without having money of his own. Coincidentally another gangster Paul Ricci is organizing a heist of platinum being transported by a police convoy. One of the men he picks to join the team declines as the plan involves killing two police outriders but recommends Gus to take his place. Paul eagerly agrees, knowing of Gus’ reputation, and the plan is carried out without a hitch. The case is outside of Blot’s jurisdiction but he is convinced that Gus is involved and forces his way in. But without any leads, he can only wait for a lucky opportunity to strike.

On one level, this is another display of pure competence by highly skilled and experienced specialists. The heist itself is the clearest example and everyone does their part as planned and are able to adapt on the fly even when there are unexpected civilian witnesses. I loved seeing Gus being exceedingly careful about checking corners and sightlines when entering possible danger. Sometimes the caution is unnecessary but the scene still tells us something about the character. Gus’ problem is that Commissaire Blot is competent as well and all too willing to stretch the limits of the law and violate ethics to catch him. As he says, the gloves come off after the criminals kill policemen and leave their children fatherless. It’s so satisfying to watch Blot rationally enumerate the moves available to him and conclude at one point that there is nothing left to do. He can only wait for Gus to make a mistake and if that never happens, then Gus will inevitably escape and they have lost the game. There are many characters and the interplay between them contributes to the sense that anything could happen, so it’s difficult to tell how the film will end.

The audience isn’t meant to root for anyone here and the film even opens with a disclaimer that it isn’t meant as an endorsement of Blot’s methods. Yet because every character is more than just a cardboard stereotype, the entire thing is compelling. For example, Gus considers Paul Ricci to be honorable but Paul’s brother Jo is scum. He in turn is too proud to flee and live on his sister’s money even though she assures him that she has plenty. I won’t spoil Blot’s plan here but he succeeds mostly because he knows how much Gus cares about his reputation as an honorable criminal who lives by his word and never snitches to the authorities. I also found it incredibly ballsy that it introduces characters like Alban who then play no role at all in the heist. These details flesh out Gus’ background and make it feel we’re bystanders to something that is really going on rather than this being a movie script that falls into familiar patterns. It’s no wonder that Melville is known as the spiritual godfather of the French New Wave while not being one of them himself.

This film was commercially successful in its time and has plenty of fans. It was remade in 2007 but the newer version predictably didn’t do very well. Indeed it’s hard to imagine how something like this could be successful today. It’s two and a half hours long, what action it does have is short and gets done with quickly, and there are many characters to keep track of. It must have taken a lot of confidence to make a film like this and it’s a pleasant surprise to realize that mainstream audiences were sophisticated enough to appreciate it.