Director: Henri Verneuil
Writer: Henry Verneuil, Vahe Katcha, David Goodis
Composer: Ennio Morricone
Starring: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Omar Sharif, Dyan Cannon, Robert Hossein, Nicole Calfan, Myraim Feune de Colombi, Raoul Delfosse, Jose Luis de Vilallonga, Renato Salvatori
More info: IMDb
Tagline: Catch the burglars!
Plot: A group of professional burglars plan an emerald heist from the home of a gem collector but the corrupt Greek police inspector Abel Zacharia is on their trail.
My rating: 7.5/10
Will I watch it again? Yeah.
Nice! I've yet to see anything but a great performance out of Jean-Paul Belmondo (the Steve McQueen of France). The camera loves him. He's got such a natural charisma that makes it hard not to like this guy. He plays Azad, the leader of the 4-person burglary team. The picture starts out with them at the outset of robbing a house of it's emerald collection. So far so good until Azad busts out this big case with an elaborate electronic kit that is able to make a custom key for the safe as well as figure out the combination. That's fine and dandy, too, except this scene DRAGS on for 9 freakin' minutes! That's not a good way to start your two hour movie. That's when Omar Sharif shows up as Inspector Zacharia. You can tell Zacharia is really good at his job as he plays with Azad who goes outside to meet him. Here are two very smart, charming characters who begin their adversarial relationship that continues to the end.
The performances from these two are fantastic. Zacharia does what it takes to solve the case but he's also crooked and greedy. Is he telling Azad a tale in order to get the emeralds back? You'll have to watch it to find out. Belmondo does most of his own stunts and he doesn't hold back. It really makes a difference when you can tell it's the actor performing them versus a stuntman. What he doesn't do (as he was in the US working on another movie) is drive in this very long and entertaining car chase.
It's a nail-biter. The tension is there alongside the adrenaline-pumping action. It's another example of how similar these two characters are (Azad being chased by Zacharia). Like the time waster of the safe opening scene, this is also 9 minutes long except that it packs a wallop. It's worth seeing the film just for this scene and it helps to see it in context. There's another great extended action scene when Azad (on foot and jumping onto and off of moving busses and cars) is again being chased by Zacharia (in a car). Ennio Morricone's fun score is a welcome addition to the picture. For a while I was skeptical of the inclusion of a romantic sub-plot but by the end of the picture it paid off. The conclusion was satisfactory enough but the murder left me a little shocked. It's nice to be shocked by movies. That doesn't happen often enough. Speaking of that, there was an odd scene when Azad shows up a Lena's (Cannon) apartment hoping for some sexy time. She claps her hand once and the light goes off. Clapping two times turns it on. I didn't realize that invention was a thing in 1971. Anyway, it turns ugly pretty quick and Azad is slapping her face from side to side which activates the light on and off. On one hand, it's harsh seeing her brutalized like that but on the other hand, it's darkly funny with the light gag. I'm sure it got tons of laughs 50 years ago but not so much now.
The print I saw looked marvelous and it was in its original French language with English subtitles. You can watch the flick on YouTube in widescreen but English dubbed only some of the time (according to someone commenting on it). I would suggest the French dub if you can find it. It's a fun movie with the unfortunately overlong safe cracking scene in the beginning but the rest of the film moves quickly and it's got some great moments along the way.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment