Right! What could go wrong? The smartest dudes in all of France have a perfect plan. Yep, they're so smart that they have police records and every women they know yells at them. French dames...good luck. They have some in this film and they're as stupid as their guys. However, our mistakes make us smarter, so just maybe this will work. From France, we have a Jules Dassin Film Noir epic, 1955's "Rififi." What does that word mean in English? Tough-guy posturing or a violent brawl. Yeah, that's about right.
Tony (Jean Servais) gets out of prison. He took the rap for his younger cousin Jo (Carl Mohner), who had a family. So what does he do after five years in the joint? Finds his sultry ex-GF Mado (Marie Sabouret). She looks fine in a wonderful evening gown and expensive jewels. Tony will strip her, then whip her and leave her scarred. Let's not be judgmental here...it is France. Jo has an idea and brings him to meet Mario (Robert Manuel). A jewel heist! Yep, ice worth a quarter of a billion Francs. The planning is meticulous. The execution? Well, Mado leaves town and this ticks off her present BF, the sadistic killer Pierre (Marcel Lupovici). Him and his family are real psychos. Another dame, the nightclub songstress Viviana (Magali Noel) seduces Mario and Cesar. Cesar? An expert with alarms from Italy, brought in just for this job.
The scene in which they sneak into the jewelry store after hours is an extensive one. It looks like a perfect heist except for...well, same old story. One of the four gets just a little bit greedy...just a little bit. Now, Viviane has herself a diamond ring worth almost as much as the Hope diamond. Oh, Mado...she returns to town and Pierre presses her for information. Tony? He can't believe his fortune...until he realizes one of the gangsters is being a bit too generous with his share of the take. Now Pierre puts two and two together and wants Tony dead and all the jewels. Much killing, shootouts, chases, and women getting slapped and abused follows. Is there any way for this to end well?
The dark streets of Paris make this almost a perfect Film Noir film. The dames are beautiful though they will be endlessly beaten and abused. The eroticism is rampant, and the violence is almost extreme. Alas, will greed end the night for our gang of thieves? Will any of the dames find happiness with one of these vicious thugs? Will Tony allow the cops to take him or will he get real desperate? This is a grim and action-packed Film Noir film. See "Rififi" and take it as a moral lesson on greed and treachery.
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