The Adventures of Arsène Lupin

Jacques Becker 's talent was slowly but inexorably declining at the time:the precedent movie "Ali -Baba' was his biggest failure,and only his last movie,"le trou" returned him to former glories.

Maurice Leblanc's afficionados will be disappointed:this is an original screenplay,borrowing some elements from the short stories of "Arsène Lupin gentleman cambrioleur" (the lighter aspect of the writer)and incorporating some of "813" (but without the suspense and the diabolic atmosphere of this very long novel in which Lupin is completely defeated).But it's finally unambitious and uninteresting.It avoids the strong anti-German feel which we can find in the books though.Time had passed.

Robert Lamoureux is not Arsène Lupin at all;Edouard Molinaro will cast Jean-Claude Brialy as the famous hero with better results in his "Arsène Lupin contre Arsène Lupin" (1962),but nothing extraordinary.

We are still waiting for the director who will do Maurice Leblanc justice.