Rififí en la ciudad (1963) User Reviews

Better than expected film-noir from Jess Franco

[jrd_73 · 7/10 · 21 November 2015]

Those who know Jess Franco's work only by his later, graphic films might be surprised by Rififi in the City, a solid film-noir.

The book Immoral Tales compared Rififi in the City to The Lady from Shanghai, but there is only one scene, a clandestine meeting at an aquarium, that is a direct homage to the Welles film. A more fitting comparison would be Fritz Lang's The Big Heat. Franco is a film fan, so in addition to the Welles and Lang references, the director sprinkles homages to The 39 Steps, Kiss of Death, and probably other classic films as well. These add to the viewing fun of Rififi in the City without taking away from the its grim tone.

The plot has Detective Miguel Mora obsessively chasing after politician Maurice Leprince, a well connected official who is responsible for most of the vice in the unnamed city. Leprince, an ex-Nazi, seldom gets his hands dirty, leaving that to his bodyguards and a shady nightclub manager, Puig. As the film opens, Detective Mora might have his man. Juan, an informer, has the proof. Then, Juan disappears, and Mora begins needling Leprince to return the missing man. After Juan's dead body is thrown into Mora's house, the detective becomes even more determined to nail the politician. Mora is not alone. Someone else is avenging Juan, murdering Leprince's bodyguards one at a time.

Rififi in the City works as a film-noir. It features a good hero and villain. The ending is surprisingly downbeat. Even the mystery angle works better than expected. There are stumbles. Franco is not good at directing action scenes. Thus, the police raid on the nightclub at the climax of the film, which should be the film's set piece, comes across as haphazard and a missed opportunity.

Still, Rififi in the City stands as one of the director's best made films. It might be too much of a standard film for some of the Franco fanatics, but it is a good one to show those who think of Franco as only a hack director of sex films.

Courious attemp of an Spanish film noir

[arbesudecon · 6/10 · 21 July 2010]

I know it's hard to keep track of the endless mumber of movies Jess Franco carriedout during his 4 decades career ...sometimes 3 o 4 at a time , but if someone asks me to list only three among his more remarkable this would be one of those that would made the cut.

Don't think for a second this is up to the Rififi's standards , Jess probably thought that could get some extra publicity by having Jean Servais so tried to sell this as a kind of Rififi follow up , but sadly all similarities ended up in the title .

As a film noir it turns out to be quite weak at some points but it's also true that , as it happens with most of Jess' flicks , Rififi en la ciudad has its charms . Apparently action is located in an undetermined South American country but actually Jess filmed all the action in the south of in Spain and even with a restricted budget ambiance are well crafted and manages to give us the atmosphere Jess intended . Plot itself it's not a wonder, classical search for a killer mixed up with some revenge touches but is enough to keep you interested throughout the film . Main assets here is that Jess is not trying to do here his usual mix of sexplotation ,vampires ,lesbanism . He steps in a different ground and provided the level of the Spanish cinema in the late 50's I would say that he accomplished a fine impersonation of the Dassin and Melville works and ambiance's.

A Noir intrigue set in a South American country , being professionally written , produced and directed by Jesus Franco

[ma-cortes · 6/10 · 17 March 2013]

Spanish/French co-production set in an unnamed Central American state on the eve of an important election, Sargento Detective Miguel Mora (Fernando Fernan Gomez) bent on uncovering the dark activities of popular politician Maurice Leprince (Jean Servais) who deals with cocaine business. But Mora in detained by his hoodlums , being mistreated , beaten and wounded . However, thugs working for Leprince began to be murdered one by one as well. Then , the chief Inspector (Antonio Prieto) suspects Miguel can be the killer .

This average-budget film contains thrills , a noir intrigue and lots of murders . It's a passable thriller directed by prolific filmmaker Jess Frank and also produced by his own production company, Manacoa Films along with Albatros SA . Here Franco manages to give us an adequate ambient , an evocative production design by Teddy Villalba , being rightly narrated , including a criminal plot enough to keep you intrigued throughout the flick . Based on the novel "Vous Souvenez-vous de Paco?" written by Charles Exbrayat and well adapted by the same Jesus Franco . The picture was well starred by one of the best Spanish actors , Fernando Fernan Gomez, who formerly had directed to Jesus Franco in ¨Extraño Viaje¨ . Furthermore , two French players who previously worked in the successful ¨Rififi¨ , Jean Servais and Robert Manuel . The Spanish support cast is frankly good , as Agustin Gonzalez , Manuel Gas , Sergio Mendizabal , Antonio Prieto , Luis Marin , Antonio Jimenez Escribano , among others . The picture belong to Franco's first period in which he made acceptable pictures such as ¨Gritos en Noche¨, ¨Miss Muerte¨ or ¨Necronomicon¨, developing a consolidated professionalism . However , his career got more and more impoverished in the following years, but his endless creativity enabled him to tackle films in all genres, from "B" horror to erotic films.

Atmospheric cinematography in black and white by Godofredo Pacheco filmed on Mediterranean Spanish locations . Good musical score by Daniel White , Franco's usual musician , including Jazzy soundtrack , wonderful songs and musical numbers . The motion picture was well directed by Jesus Franco. Jesus uses to sign under pseudonym , among the aliases he used, apart from the names Jess Franco or Franco Manera, were Jess Frank, Robert Zimmerman, Frank Hollman, Clifford Brown, David Khune , Toni Falt, James P. Johnson, Charlie Christian, David Tough , among others. Franco used to utilize usual marks such as zooms , nudism , foreground on objects , filmmaking in ¨do-it-yourself effort¨ style or DIY and managing to work extraordinarily quickly . In many of the more than 180 films he's directed he has also worked as composer, writer, cinematographer and editor. His first was "We Are 18 Years Old" and the second picture was ¨Gritos en la Noche¨ (1962) , the best of all them , also titled "The Awful Dr. Orlof" , it's followed by various sequels such as El Secreto del Dr. Orloff (1964) aka "The Mistresses of Dr. Jekyll" , " Orloff y el hombre invisible (1970) aka "Dr. Orloff's Invisible Monster" and finally "Faceless" (1987) . Jesús's influence has been notable all over Europe . From his huge body of work we can deduce that Jesús Franco is one of the most restless directors of Spanish cinema and often releasing several titles at the same time. Many of his films have had problems in getting released, and others have been made directly for video. More than once his staunchest supporters have found his "new" films to contain much footage from one or more of his older films.Jesús Franco is a survivor in a time when most of his colleagues tried to please the government administration. He broke up with all that and got the independence he was seeking. He always went upstream in an ephemeral industry that fed opportunists and curbed the activity of many professionals. But time doesn't pass in vain, and Jesus' production has diminished since the 90s .

Entertaining and morbidly beautiful

[manuel-pestalozzi · 8/10 · 26 March 2008]

This movie in crisp, expertly lighted black and white has not one boring second. It may not be the greatest piece of cinematic art, but there is a lot of artistic ambition on display so that the movie may well suck you in for the odd 90 minutes.

The title is a rip off from Jules Dassin's masterpiece Rififi Chez les Hommes. The main villain here is none other than Belgian character actor Jean Servais who played the top gangster in the original Rififi. The story line reminded me more of Dashiell Hammett's The Glass Key: The Servais character is a gangster and night club owner who also runs for senator. The political campaign takes up quite some time, with a huge mass of Servais posters in the streets, a propaganda march in a public space, a full fledged political speech and Servais kissing an old woman and later complaining to his aides that she smelled of onions. A police informer and ladies man close to the Servais character was killed (he is not deposited on the steps of a police station but thrown through the window into a police man's private residence – which might give an idea of the degree of violence dealt out here) and it is basically about the search of the killer and a succession of further killings to avenge that death. The negative nature of politics in general takes quite a lot of space which always surprises me a little in movies that were apparently made in Spain during the Franco regime. Besides Servais there are a lot of really picturesque character actors of both sexes on display.

Franco noir

[BandSAboutMovies · 5/10 · 15 February 2023]

Based on the Charles Exbrayat novel Vous souvenez vous de Paco, this is all about everyone in the orbit of a corrupt politician named Maurice Leprince (Jean Servais), those who want to protect him and those who seek to stop him. This is Franco's homage to noir, with an aquarium scene that references The Lady from Shanghai as well as tips of the cap to other noir classics.

Juan (Serafin Garcia Vazquez) has learned that Leprince runs the crime in the city and is killed. His handler Mora (Fernando Fernan Gomez) goes after the criminal but is dumped in the river. He quits the force so that he can use whatever force he needs to get revenge. I mean, you throw someone through a good cop's window and this is what happens.

There's also a female killer - a Franco Cinematic Universe favorite - who is killing all of Leprince's men to get revenge for Juan and wants him in her sights before it's all over.

Franco as always struggles with action scenes but when it comes to capturing a city in the shadows and the smoke-filled jazz cabarets within, he proves to be a genius.

A year after making this, Franco would be Welles' assistant on Chimes at Midnight.

Greatest Franco musical numbers

[Dr Bis · 10/10 · 30 June 2008]

Never released on video or DVD, RIFIFI EN LA CIUDAD is very rare to see on screen. Thanks to the Madrid Cinematheque, a new print was made in 1993 and has been shown in a few Franco retrospectives. The two others comments present here, tell you the excellent work done by Jesus and his team. What they both forgot, are the two flamboyant "cabaret" songs performed by Marie Vincent. The first one,"Passo Chico", has her singing in a shiny silver outfit about the seduction of the double steps performed by "Chico", then it switches to a larger scene where a knight in armor is dancing on stage , around him are also several dancing girls in costumes, including one in a Cleopatra outfit. A very modern sequence, mixed in a very classic and serious crime film story. Later on, Miss Vincent also sings about what love can do to a woman, all dressed up in fluffy lingerie nightgown. A film not be missed, even if you are not a Franco fan. By the way, who ever credited Jess Franco as "the worst Film Director Ever" ? ...

Quite a discovery

[tony-70-667920 · 9/10 · 23 January 2020]

Jesus (Jess) Franco was incredibly prolific and seems to have concentrated mostly on horror and sexploitation, so it's no surprise that his oeuvre is rated poorly, even by himself. It seems he took greater pains with his early work, because this 1963 noir, which isn't even listed among his films in Jean Tulard's "Dictionnaire du Cinema", is excellent. I'm grateful to the ever-splendid Movie Detective for the chance to see it on DVD. Fernand Fernan Gomez plays Miguel Mora, a Central American cop obsessed with bringing down Leprince (Jean Servais) who arrived in the country in 1944, so you can guess what he did in the war. Mora's informer Juan is killed and when Mora goes to the nightcub Leprince owns and accuses him Leprince's three thugs beat Mora savagely and throw him into the sea. He survives, and then someone starts killing the thugs. Mora's boss, played by an actor with the worst skin you ever saw, initially suspects Mora; a bit daft since Mora is still hobbling badly and couldn't have chased the thug down a pier and stabbed him. We know the killer is a woman avenging Juan's death, and there's a clue to her identity early on. The film has flaws. Too many musical and dance scenes in the nightclub, which seem like padding, and the police raid on the nightclub is unconvincing: it was a surprise raid, so how come the waiters all seemed to have guns? These. though, are minor quibbles. Franco was clearly talented, and this is a rare treat. I can't recall seeing another Spanish noir. BTW, the following year the roles were reversed and Fernan Gomez directed Franco in "A Strange Journey", one of the most brilliant Spanish films I've seen.

For film noir, Nazi, jazz, thriller fans, and Franco's distracted fans alike

[Artemis-9 · 10/10 · 31 December 2009]

I do not know the background of this film, but it has features that later Jess Franco's films had: beautiful girls (young readers will be appalled by their large hairdos, but yes, women were using it like that, and I liked it), plenty of bad guys, coward and courageous cops, rotten politicians, a South American unnamed country sunny and reach in opportunities (for working people and cocaine traffickers). Other reviewers noticed how Franco's next films were a succession of cheap exploitative slashers, nudity, prostitution, gore, terror. Why? My answer is that maybe Franco thought, as time went by, that he needed money, and he was more serious than his audiences, and distributors. If he saw historical evolution right, after 1963 he understood that he made a film with a happy end (no, it's not a spoiler yet) that was out of pace with real life: we know now for certain that gangsters, former Nazis, people involved in drugs trafficking, when «democratic» elections by using power, fear, and all the votes money can buy. In a far, unnamed country in Latin America - nothing to affect English speakers... Franco did manage to film this in Madrid under a dictatorial regime, but his film was so good, too good in fact, that it has had almost no distribution, even with VHS and DVD. Or else, I've been distracted, and many fans of Franco too.

And yet, Franco was placing all in front of our eyes. The first image is a political campaign poster, "Leprince es Justicia" (Leprince is Justice), but we FORGET it when the woman's voice starts speaking low of a gone lover, and the camera pans onto the beach house, and the seashore. The orchestra that starts playing all that black jazz score (by Jess Franco as Daniel J. White - also the wonderful cabaret numbers though the film), and an elegant pair of ankles and feet are doing dance steps on the chalk marks on the stage, 1-2-3-4... and on and on, but we FORGET that it means that her audience (us) do not care she is not what she pretends to be, a dancer, and as credits roll, we finally see her, the buxom blonde in a tight white dress, promising us kisses. A couple of black men are seen dating with brunettes, and one even has time to evade answering her about sort of thing was he dealing with - to be so rich, and to afford having a different girl every night, and promising them pricey cars, but we FORGET about him, as he is a mere underling to the big boss, and soon dispatched from the story. The cabaret owner is also the owner of the cotton industries, and an immigrant of April 1944, arriving without money from Nazi occupied Marseilles, France, but we FORGET that Franco plants this information in three distant occupied dialogs, never as a relevant matter but something that blurts out in the middle of something else. One person will come close to another person who is snoring loud after drinking an alcohol drink, open the person's shirt, extract a small key to a safe, and eventually finding out more than expected (yeah! I managed to write this without a spoiler!), and we FORGET that neither Orson Welles, nor Alfred Hitchock, ever managed such a long, thrilling suspense that had me on the edge of the chair, and yet unable to press fast forward - for I was as much afraid of that said person.

The expression Rififi comes from the underground world of Brussels (I think) and it's almost impossible to translate, so in other languages (as in Spanish) it is either left alone, or a different approach must be used... Riffraff is not an explanation, and it is more than struggle, or fight, because it conveys despair, all-out, annihilation...

The French title "Vous souvenez-vous de Paco?" (do you remember Paco, the most common short name in Spanish language countries...) is very intriguing. With it, Franco tells us that Paco will be easily forgotten by the men in the story, and in the audience, who will NEVER FORGET the French (or is it German?) that fled to South America to start a new life (or is it?). I (with my male brain, already forgot Paco's face), but Franco also told me that Paco will never be forgotten by the women who loved him (for his face, his body, his sex, or himself?) even if he had not loved them. Nina's and Pilar's speeches, on camera, or in a letter read later by a police detective, mark the difference between man and woman in a relationship - and suddenly I find that this is not just an engagé director settling a political matter, it is a genial director putting us face-to-face with the ages old question of love, sex, and relationships. In 1963 - five years before the summer of 1968.

The beautiful cinematography in black and white and the cheap decors somewhat manages to give to the film all the bright colors - and shades - of Latin America, but the original story, or its magnificent screen adaptation leads us to the high levels of human and social statements film directors ever made in a movie.

I'm ashamed I only knew Jesus Franco by some musical scores in sexploitation films, and a couple of Doctor Orloffs. I paid US$8.37 for the original version in Spanish, no subtitles, Clásicos Imprescindibles del Cine Español, at a discount sale, that runs exactly 99 min 30 sec., format 1.85:1 (screen 4:3), an excellent, blameless print by Mercury Films & Video, and Filmfax Homevideo. I'm not selling it for US$83.70 even if you ask politely. Unless you've just won a democratic election in your State - like in this film's there is a decider second vote after the first results are counted - and you, and your friends, make me an offer THAT I CAN'T POSSIBLY REFUSE. (pun intended)