Safe Return Doubtful

Bob Le Flambeur / Bob The Gambler

I want to talk about two film noirs and show the difference 60 odd years have had.

Firstly, this Jean-Pierre Melville film from 1955, a low key but typical French noir in that it highlights the divided loyalties in a gang of crooks, a heist gone wrong and women putting a spanner in the works. Though Melville directs, the cast were all relatively unknown, though most do a good job.

It was the first of Melville’s gangster films, which as a group went on to have such a big influence on modern cinema.

It concerns an old time gangster and gambler, Bob Montagne, played by Roger Duchesne, who is popular with pretty much everyone, women, young men who see him as a role model, and even the police. He finds himself broke after a run of bad luck, but is made aware that the casino he uses will be holding an abnormally large sum of money in its safe one night.

When watching such noirs from the 40s and 50s it’s necessary to have in mind the attitudes of the time, particularly the way women are treated by the lead men.

IMDb score 7.6 / 10 – My score 7 / 10

Which brings me to the next film..

Door Mouse

This is a Canadian neo-noir of 2022, from a new director, Avan Jogia, in her full length debut. It’s really bravely done, low on budget, quirky, and creative.

Its protagonist is a burlesque dancer and comic artist in a seedy area of an Ontario town. She becomes amateur sleuth when two of the women she works with in the night club go missing. It’s a standard noir type plot, but what makes it so watchable is the distinctive way the story is told, using some animation, a punk soundtrack, and characters that soon demand attention.

There’s a diverse cast of almost all non-white women, who excel and make a low-key and unpretentious film one of the indie stand-outs of the year.

IMDb score 5.5 / 10 – My score 8 / 10