Interdit de séjour

The film maker guilty of this one was not a great director and not specialized in crime films, but this one is so typical from the early fifties Paris atmosphere with, first, a music score, that looks very like the one heard in TOUCHEZ PAS AU GRISBI, also written by Albert Simonin; some kind of poor man's Auguste Le Breton or José Giovanni, the great specialists of the underworld and code of honor among gangsters. Here Simonin was the screenwriter whilst the novel which it is inspired from was written by Andre Helena, an even poorer man's Albert Simonin and so on...See what I mean? Helena also wrote many petty hoodlums stories, all taking place in Paris, Montmartre district or South of France, near Perpignan, where this writer was from. So this little crime flick is pretty well made, gloomy, never boring, and the cast excellent too. Good action and gunfight scenes, especially for the climax.