Inspired by a true story which was widely talked about at the time,"Boulevard des assassins " boasts a good cast featuring Jean-Louis Trintignant,Victor Lanoux ,Marie-France Pisier and Stephane Audran -an actress who sometimes gives a Chabrolesque feel to the atmosphere-,but does not deliver the goods.Like in Robert Wise's film noir "captive city",we do not know exactly who they are,those murderers who do away with old ladies to appropriate their valuable sites.And the mayor of the town might be behind these very bad things. But Robert Wise 's work was some fifty years ago,and in 1982 ,the topic was hackneyed and here the directing is completely listless the screenplay muddled and the characters incapable of sustaining any interest.
