Du Rififi Chez Les Hommes (France 1955)
In film noir the portrayal of the characters and the plot force the viewer to identify with the bad guy. There can be good ‘bad guys’ and bad ‘bad guys’ and a sliding scale in between. It’s generally a tougher job on the part of the director to get any sympathy from the viewer the worse the bad guy is. Here, there are four ‘bad guys’ and each somewhere different on that scale. For that reason alone, this is a classic in the genre.
Another reason is that is so compelling and tense despite it being a very well used plot with a predictable ending: one last jewellery store heist for Toni (Le Stephanois after his hometown) and his sidekicks, and in the end.. well, guess, it’s not hard..
It is filmed in black and white on the streets of Paris using relatively unknown and unglamorous actors.
On that scale, in the gang of four, from bad to good: Robert Hossein (Le Tatoue) plays a sadistic drug addict, Jean Servais plays Toni the tough guy just out of the slammer and consumptive, Robert Manuel plays the Italian gangster (The Milanese) who first came up with the plan, and Carl Möhner (The Swede) the safe-cracker, with a young family, who knows the set up, but gets careless.
The pacing of the film is tremendous also, two hours and not a chance to take your eyes away from it.
Just a word of advice for those keen to see it, don’t be tempted to go for the dubbed version. It’s partly in Italian, so be aware of that when reading the subs.. and there are substantial parts of the film without dialogue at all, the 15 minute heist scene most notably.
IMDb rating 8.1 / 10 – My rating 9 / 10
Safe Return Doubtful 
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