Bob le flambeur (1956)

Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville; produced by Jean-Pierre Melville, Serge Silberman, Roger Vidal

Bob Montagne (Roger Duchesne) is a veteran criminal and gambler. He’s a respectable, classy man, whom everyone likes, even the police, a high-ranking officer of which (Guy Decomble) owes his life to Bob. But Bob’s luck comes and goes. The day he is down to his last few francs is when he learns that the casino at Deauville routinely keeps a fortune in its safe. Naturally, that safe is heavily protected. Just as naturally, Bob wants to rob it.

An interesting movie, Bob le flambeur comes across as a cheaper, less refined version of the better French crime-films of the mid-1950s, such as Touchez pas au grisbi (the first movie reviewed on this blog this year). The direction seems that of someone still learning his trade, though this was Melville’s fourth feature.

There are several scenes which include people in the background watching the events, as if the filming was conducted without permission, or without involving everyone visible in the shoot. In another scene, shot outdoors, the sound of an aeroplane flying overhead nearly blots out the dialogue, indicating that later dubbing was not used, and little care taken to preclude unintended noises. Though much of the direction is effective, it nonetheless almost conveys the impression of a student film, shot by someone of considerable but undeveloped talent.

The acting too is less capable than in other French movies of the era. Duchesne had made more than a dozen movies in four years, many of them during the German occupation of France. He was shunned afterward as a collaborator, and had not acted for thirteen years prior to Bob le flambeur. While good, he has not the ease or charisma of actors who would rise to the top of French cinema, such as Gabin, Belmondo or Delon.

The performer who stands out most prominently is seventeen year old Isabelle Corey (here credited as Isobel Corey). Her portrayal of Anne, a youngster on the road to ruin, until saved by Bob, is convincing. So too is Decomble’s, playing a cop who is good at and dedicated to his job, but preferring to prevent crime than investigate it.

The script is better than other elements, co-written by Auguste Le Breton, who penned, among other screenplays, Rififi and Razzia sur la chnouf. It creates a winning character in Bob, who protects Anne from a violent pimp, but shuns romance with such a kid, despite her willingness; whose robberies hurt no one - except himself - and whose instinct is to help, even his enemies. The other characters are, if not well-defined, realistic, variously driven by love, greed, desperation and boredom.

A good but not very good film, Bob le flambeur would probably not be one to entice viewers deeper into French 1950s cinema, as would a number of other choices. But for someone who isn’t demanding, and who is willing to be entertained without being impressed, it is a reasonably enjoyable evening at the movies.

Venetian Bird (1952)

Directed by Ralph Thomas; produced by Betty E Box

Private detective Edward Mercer (Richard Todd) travels to Venice to find Renzo Uccello, who had saved an RAF officer’s life in the Second World War. To his surprise, he finds Uccello elusive, people reluctant to speak of him and the police even more interested in finding him than Mercer is himself. Soon, the investigator is caught up in bribery and political assassinations, and becomes the subject of a hunt more dangerous than that for Uccello.

Victor Canning, who wrote both the novel from which Venetian Bird is adapted, and the adaptation itself, was a prolific author of thrillers in the 1930s, ‘40s and later. Venetian Bird seems fairly typical of his work. Like The Golden Salamander - a movie derived from another of his books and reviewed on this blog in December of 2017 - it involves an Englishman who is inadvertently caught up in intrigue and romance in foreign parts. Venetian Bird is the better movie but, though an adequate adventure film, not really memorable. It gives the feeling of coming from an author who put out more or less similar work once a year as a job, which is what Canning was.

Todd is usually an engaging hero, boyish, active, as ready with his brains as with his fists. He does well here in a rôle that doesn’t really ask him to stretch his talent. His love-interest, Eva Bartok, is suitably mysterious, but not as good an actor as her male counterpart. The best parts are filled by George Coulouris, as a harassed police chief, and John Gregson as a street photographer/police agent. The film comes more alive during their scenes.

The direction is good. Thomas is a work-a-day director, without much flair or spectacular style, but he knows what to do with the location shooting, and incorporates with competence scenes obviously shot in Venice with those just as obviously shot on a sound-stage. (Much was probably filmed in England, as may be guessed by the British supporting cast, including Sidney James as an Italian undertaker.) A chase over tiled roofs is well-handled.

The story is serviceable, but the script gives the impression of not having had enough thought put into it - or, rather, not enough thought given to taking ideas far enough. Mercer talks about how he let a suspicious character escape, implying that he was losing his skills. Nothing is made of this observation, however. As well, we are told that he and a female associate (Margot Grahame) participated in an ‘assassination’ during the war. Viewers may assume that it had to do with the conflict - perhaps a collaborator was targeted - but that is not explained. The villain is rather easily traced to an apartment merely because another villain owns the building.

Definitely a B-movie, Venetian Bird entertains well enough for an evening, but it could have been more, and possibly relied too much on the writer’s fame, rather than any skill he may have had.