Melville was originally slated to direct this Auguste le Breton novel, when producer Henri Bérard handed it over to the freshly exiled Jules Dassin. A victim of Hollywood’s Communist blacklist, the American director defiantly reemerged with his low-budget masterpiece Rififi. Dramatically deviating from the original novel, which he considered racist, Dassin even stepped in to play the safecracking César the Milanese (under the name “Perlo Vita”). In this slow-burning, heist “procedural,” a newly sober Jean Servais plays the worn gangster Tony le Stéphanois, only able to summon inspiration when a challenging enough job comes along: breaking into the safe of a prominent and seemingly impregnable Parisian jewelry store. Using a mix of location shooting and elaborate sets, Dassin’s realism is as meticulous as the robbers’ detailed planning of the caper and finally its execution—lasting a decadently silent thirty-three minutes. Dassin’s criminals also have full lives apart from their work: relaxing and playing with lovers or families; enjoying an extended nightclub performance featuring future Fellinian Magali Noël who sings the title song (apparently made-up underworld slang meaning “rough and tumble”) and unwittingly activates a sequence of fatal events that test the gang’s erstwhile bonds, eventually culminating in a bleak and violent dénouement that nonetheless maintains the film’s methodical, suspenseful pace. Despite the snub, Melville was pleased with the result, and many years later would make his own version of the tale with Le cercle rouge, which includes a magnificent heist undoubtedly influenced by Dassin’s brazen gamble. – Brittany Gravely