Rafles sur la ville

Pierre Chenal's only claim to fame remains "le dernier tournant",(1939)historically the first version of "the postman always rings twice"(which will have three more versions).Therefore,the best of his work is to be found in the pre-war years,but even such works as "l'alibi" (1937,with Erich Von Stroheim) are dated now. And nobody seems to care about his chef d'oeuvre "la foire aux chimères"(1946).After an Argentinian career during the war,he came back to France to make undistinguished works the likes of "rafles sur la ville".The plot is very thin : an old and dangerous gangster (Vanel)is on the lam.Two cops are hot on his heels :this is the -relative- originality of the screen play;the two cops team will become a sub genre of the thriller in the last thirty years;and of course,two "different" cops:one is a tough guy(Michel Piccoli),the other one is humane and gives cigarettes to everyone around.Piccoli has a love affair with his colleague's wife -who is some Brigitte Bardot ersatz-. Vanel is betrayed by his lover -a Simone Signoret ersatz-.And that is what the film is : a film noir ersatz.

I am a die hard fan of Auguste Le Breton's books. They are all rough, tough, brutal, poignant, gripping; Le Breton wrote not with his head but his guts, his pain, his inner rage, from his terrible childhood in orphanages, awful children prisons between two world wars. His novel is a terrific character study and a depiction of the police procedures for which Le Breton stayed with the cops during several weeks. Piccoli is terrific here, one of his most underrated roles and a bad one. Not the same he will have thirteen years later in MAX ET LES FERRAILLEURS. This is a bittersweet story, that leaves a strange taste in the mouth, but that's precisely what I love. The ending scene involving Michel Piccoli reminded more or less the same sequence in William Wyler's DETECTIVE STORY, where Kirk Douglas had a character situation close to Piccoli's one.

RAFLES DUR LA VILLE (ROUNDUPS IN THE CITY) Wow. This has got to be one of the most cynical French crime films of the 1950s. Violent and explosive, it never lets up, with conflicted characters and some very shady situations. Michel Piccoli (before his small role in LE DOULOS and a remarkable career that followed), plays Verdier, a corrupt, womanizing detective whose partner is killed attempting to stop an escaped gangster, Le Fondu (Charles Vanel). Verdier's cynicism combined with desire for revenge make him pretty ruthless. He tricks a minor offender into betraying Le Fondu, and he seduces the wife of his new partner. Just to name a couple of things. This is a perfect example of its type, perhaps resembling those of Melville, though without the staying power. Vanel is good, but really old and he's paired (as would have been Gabin had he been cast) with a woman who could be his grand-daughter. That's Bella Darvi, a true beauty and not a bad actress in a key role. Every performance works well here and director Pierre Chenal knew how to stage a convincing scene, like the gambling ones where Le Fondu's nephew, Le Niçois (well played by Marcel Mouloudji) hangs out. Note the interaction with a female gambler that adds to the realism. Characters are played against each other and duplicity abounds. Fairly obscure, dark and enjoyable stuff!

It's dirty cops vs dirty crooks with amoral women on the side in this thoroughly cynical policier; there's hardly anyone to root for, or, to put it more accurately, the traditional "people to root for" are hardly in the film. Fourth-billed Michel Piccoli, in one of his earliest roles, is easily the breakout star of the show as a cop who might make even Richard Gere of "Internal Affairs" (1990) blush, though top-billed Charles Vanel is almost equally as good as the aging mobster who will kill anyone who stands in his way. The explosive finale is certainly memorable and worth waiting for! **1/2 out of 4.