The title is a misnomer : there are exactly TWO scenes where the man and the child play together:one at the beginning and one when they meet again for the dramatic finale;besides the soundtrack on the IMDb page reads "the little boy and the old man":in fact,it's a little girl.
This title might make you think of a melodrama but it is not:it is a routine thriller which looks like dozens of fifties thrillers ,the only notable difference is that it gets -a rare privilege in the French fifties- a deluxe treatment of color and wide screen ;as it was filmed on the Riviera ,the viewer can Watch heavenly landscapes .
Now for the screenplay :it features one of the biggest star of the era,Eddie Constantine ,fighting drug trafficking and white slave trade ,all this done with an incredible lack of imagination.S/M buffs might enjoy the scene when Juliette Greco whips one of her female employees with conviction.
