Product Review

Jean-Paul Belmondo had become an overnight star of France's "Nouvelle Vague" in Godard's 'Breathless' and he teams here with veteran Charles Vanel ('Wages Of Fear', 'Diabolique') to essay the part of a boxer who signs on as a bodyguard to a shady businessman. Vanel is crooked financier who defrauds the Ferchaux family of a copious amount of money and takes flight to New York. Their voyage creates a bond between them and shortly there is a sort of father-and son relationship that is built up between them. But soon there is a shift in power as the young man discovers the world around him with all of its possibilities. Belmondo and Vanel embark on a trip to the United States connected only by greed but wind up being trapped by their own flaws.

Director Jean-Pierre Melville tackles this relationship amid the setting of the United States, working for the first time in color. It's an early exercise in his 'minimalist' film noir style which was heavily influenced by American gangster films. His guerilla method of shooting from an open car gives the film a documentary feel with the endless highways, cheesy motels and slick diners exhibiting a view of America that was not the usual vision expected by French audiences.

DVD EXTRA
World News - (1958) - Seeing is believing they say, but here are a few newsreels that could certainly disprove that. They're recreated news events with a comic twist in the very overstated French manner.