Writer-director-producer Raoul Levy hit a home run with this moody, intelligent, very-well acted crime film. On the surface, the plot seems simple--mafia soldiers Henry Silva and Jack Klugman are on an assignment to kill a former mafia guy played by Eddie Constantine. But the story--and most of the film--is really about the relationship between Henry Silva's and Jack Klugman's characters, and both give brilliant performances. I would never have thought of this pair of actors together, but as well as I know each of their works, I saw only the two characters, real people, not the actors. Eddie Constantine is not in the film all that much--it's Klugman and Silva's movie. Raoul Levy is probably best known here in the US as the producer of five Bridget Bardot films and of the underrated THE DEFECTOR, the last movie of Montgomery Clift. The washed-out monochrome photography by Raoul Coutard, the brilliant jazz score by Hubert Rostaing, and Levy's intelligent, literate script all come together in a powerful film that will pack an unexpected wallop for those expecting just another euro-crime film. No wonder Henry Silva's european career took off right after this film. The existential plot could easily have been from a spaghetti western or a samurai film, and anyone who has ever considered those genres (and the euro-crime film) as metaphors for life and society should find a copy of this film as soon as possible. For me, one of the five best European-made crime films of the 1960's, and I've seen hundreds of them.