The last film from Jean Pierre Melville, best known for Le Samourai.It's got a name cast - Alain Delon (as a cop rather than a robber), Richard Crenna of all people (Americans were popping up in French films around this time) and Catherine Deneuve.
It starts brilliantly with a heist in a bank by the seaside during a wind-swept storm - how did they film this? There's another superb set piece in the middle - a heist on a train involving Crenna being dropped on board via a helicopter.
Crenna has the better role - because he gets to rob things, while Delon has to not catch him until the end (this is standard in heist movies though). So Delon walks around looking tough, bangs away on a shooting range, interrogates and later slaps a transvestite (I think) and hook up with Catherine Deneuve who has a small role as Crenna's moll (it's good to see her though - she suits these parts particularly when dressed up as a nurse and heading in to kill someone for Crenna).
Michael Conrad, the sergeant from Hill Street Blues pops up as a member of Crenna's gang and he's very effective despite his dubbed voice.
Like a lot of French gangster films it's a love story between two men, in this case Delon and Crenna who make eyes at each other over the table at Crenna's nightclub, with the woman in there to prove everyone's straight.
I wonder if this influenced Michael Mann's Heat?
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