Dernier atout

...and only for completists.The director's career really began with "Goupi Mains Rouges" the following year:the difference of quality between the two movies is so huge that it seems that Becker learned his job overnight.

Although it takes place in an imaginary country(because of the Occupation?),the screenplay -perhaps Becker's weakest ever- borrows from both American gangsters films and American comedies.Neither the characters nor the actors can sustain the interest till the end.One could,at a pinch ,notice Becker's fondness for manly friendship (he mistrusts women too).

Raymond Rouleau plays a cop that pretends he is in cahoots with the gangsters after drawing straws with a colleague he competes with to be first in his class.He would be the lead in Becker's third -and much better" movie "Falbalas".