Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17136 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-08-13
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Black & White, PAL
• Original language: French
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 92 minutes

Synopsis
Gabin, the quintessential tough-guy, and Moreau, resplendent as always, pair up for this heist film, one of the best of the French gangster films of the 1950s. In it, Gabin is an aging thief who has already pulled off what he thinks was his last big job, scoring enough gold to last him through his twilight years. Unfortunately, one of his partners' girlfriends has taken up with the boss of a rival gang and he quickly learns about the big score. Soon, Max's best friend is kidnapped and held for ransom. The blackmail scheme soon turns into a battle of wits between Max and the rival gang that includes a number of double-crosses and, inevitably, leads to tragic finish.

Customer Reviews

Jean Gabin in a classic French Gangster Flic
The film starts with Max (Jean Gabin) and Riton (Rene Dary) as a couple of aging crooks who have pulled off a bullion robbery which will allow them to retire. Riton however does not want to retire he wants to carry on chasing women and clubing the night away. Max however knows that time is catching up with him and looks forward to leaving his life of crime.

In steps Angelo (Lino Ventura) as a younger gangster to wishes to cut himself into their grisbi (loot). Angelo has Riton kidnapped and offers to trade him for the stolen gold. Will Max be true to his mate Riton and his underworld code or will he keep the gold and be rid of Riton who as he says has been holding him back for years? The answer is never in doubt as Max sets out to free Riton. Max's underworld code demands loyalty to ones friends above everything else.

What makes this film so great is Jean Gabin as Max. Max may be getting on but he not a man you would cross. He thinks nothing of torturing a rival gangster or hitting a woman if loyalty to Riton demands it.

What also sets this film apart is that we see why Max is a criminal. It is because crime does pay. Max has two flats, he has good clothes, eats at smart restaurants and sleeps with beautiful women. Compare this with White Heat where Jimmy Cagney spends most of time hinding out in the mountains even after a succesful robbery.

The fifties and sixties were a golden age for French crime films and Touchez Pas au Grisbi (Hands of the Loot) is one of the best.

Caper movie in the grand French tradition
Jean Gabin plays an ageing villain who has the grisbi (loot) from a bullion robbery in the Paris of 1953. Betrayed by his partner's young girlfriend (Jeanne Moreau) to the nasty Angelo (Lino Ventura who was to chase Gabin again in The Sicilian Clan) Gabin has to come up with a plan to recover friends and retain the loot. The film has a feel of Bob le Flameur meets Rififi but plenty of its own individual twists and turns. If you are looking for a grittily realistic gangster movie then you are in the wrong area, but you are still in for an entertaining film.

Fascinating movie with a great Jean Gabin performance
This is a film I like a lot. I like the way it spends the first half of the movie setting up the situation, getting us into the milieu and letting us know the characters. Everyone seems to be tough but you don't know just how tough until the second half of the movie starts rolling. And if I could transform myself into the style of one actor, it would be Jean Gabin. He dominates the movie effortlessly, in every way from how he moves, gives a shrug and a half smile, pulls a chair for his mistress and then places his hands momentarily on her shoulders, stares at a punk who is being deliberately hurt to make him talk. Gabin was 50 when he made this movie and looks it. He could have passed for 60. He's getting a little thick in the middle, his eyes have bags and his neckline sags. He has no vanity. His character points this all out to his friend Riton when he tries to talk a little sense to his friend. And as fascinating a character as Max is, it doesn't take long before you realize that, if he were really upset with you, he could kill you with barely a second thought.

Part of the pleasure of the movie also is the other characters. With a number of them I was kept a little off balance. Angelo at first comes off as a tough gangster. But then you realize that he's not only tough, but he's smart. Pierrot also kept me guessing. What role was he playing? I kept assuming he was just probably a slimy nightclub owner ready to betray anyone. Then it turns out he's ready to back up Max even when it gets dangerous.

And of course some of the pleasure of the movie is that it isn't just a first rate film of gangsters and criminal style. It's even more about friendship and about the years catching up with us all. Max's interior monologue about his friend Riton is not only touching, it went a long way to explaining who Max himself was. The end, when Max has to put on a pair of glasses to check a phone number, is a satisfying way to conclude Max's story.

The Criterion DVD picture is great and the interviews are interesting. I especially enjoyed the one with Lino Ventura, who played Angelo.