Jean Gabin made some tremendous movies throughout his long career, this was one I'd never seen before and although not tremendous is a pretty good absorbing gangster yarn. On the other hand the dead body count is most definitely tremendous, paradoxically human life seemed to have cheapened in value over his career.
Tale of violent robberies followed by violent murders by a violent nutter, but the murder of his old childhood friend the sucker Albert really riles Police Comissaire Gabin. He dogs the baddies footsteps and eventually arranges his come-uppance in his role of official police avenger. And he's in charge and he's fed up with the seemingly endless supply of crooks. The spoiler alert is because when Dany Carrel - who I must say never looked lovelier than in here - gets pointlessly shot the film also shoots itself in the foot too and never quite recovers its direction. It left an exclamation point over my head; in fact the later train robbery reminded me of an old Keystone film in its lack of realism. Also the denouement reminded me of The Train except not poignant at all. However, overall the film was well made, flabby Gabin was eye-catching and impeccable as usual (but thankfully he wasn't asked to swing with the semi-naked hippies though!), and you're never bored.
Personally I've always regarded Gabin's later films as being much more dated than his work from thirty years earlier – this is no exception. Jour Se Leve and Grand Illusion may have passed into Timelessness, and although this flimsy outing never will it's still entertaining.
Tale of violent robberies followed by violent murders by a violent nutter, but the murder of his old childhood friend the sucker Albert really riles Police Comissaire Gabin. He dogs the baddies footsteps and eventually arranges his come-uppance in his role of official police avenger. And he's in charge and he's fed up with the seemingly endless supply of crooks. The spoiler alert is because when Dany Carrel - who I must say never looked lovelier than in here - gets pointlessly shot the film also shoots itself in the foot too and never quite recovers its direction. It left an exclamation point over my head; in fact the later train robbery reminded me of an old Keystone film in its lack of realism. Also the denouement reminded me of The Train except not poignant at all. However, overall the film was well made, flabby Gabin was eye-catching and impeccable as usual (but thankfully he wasn't asked to swing with the semi-naked hippies though!), and you're never bored.
Personally I've always regarded Gabin's later films as being much more dated than his work from thirty years earlier – this is no exception. Jour Se Leve and Grand Illusion may have passed into Timelessness, and although this flimsy outing never will it's still entertaining.