Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Jean Servais | ... | Tony le Stéphanois | |
Carl Möhner | ... | Jo le Suedois | |
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Robert Manuel | ... | Mario Ferrati |
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Janine Darcey | ... | Louise |
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Pierre Grasset | ... | Louis Grutter aka Louis le Tatoué |
Robert Hossein | ... | Remi Grutter | |
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Marcel Lupovici | ... | Pierre Grutter |
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Dominique Maurin | ... | Tonio |
Magali Noël | ... | Viviane | |
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Marie Sabouret | ... | Mado les Grands Bras |
Claude Sylvain | ... | Ida Ferrati | |
Jules Dassin | ... | Cesar le Milanais (as Perlo Vita) | |
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Armandel | ... | Second Gambler |
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Alain Bouvette | ... | Footman, 'L'Age D'Or' |
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Alice Garan |
After five years in prison, Tony le Stéphanois meets his dearest friends Jo and the Italian Mario Ferrati and they invite Tony to steal a couple of jewels from the show-window of the famous jewelry Mappin & Webb Ltd, but he declines. Tony finds his former girlfriend Mado, who became the lover of the gangster owner of the night-club L' Âge d' Or Louis Grutter, and he humiliates her, beating on her back for being unfaithful. Then he calls Jo and Mario and proposes a burglary of the safe of the jewelry. They invite the Italian specialist in safes and elegant wolf Cesar to join their team and they plot a perfect heist. They are successful in their plan, but the Don Juan Cesar makes things go wrong when he gives a valuable ring to his mistress. Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
RIFIFI (Jules Dassin - France 1955)
To me, it seems a very risky idea to attempt a Hollywood-remake of Jules Dassin's 1955 classic RIFIFI. Planned for release in 2007, Al Pacino apparently is gonna play the lead, taking on the role of Tony le Stephanois. Risky business... How they're gonna pull this off?
Ironically, Dassin was blacklisted in Hollywood and went on to try his luck in France and made this little masterpiece, aptly called by some "The Grandddady of all caper- and heist movies". In my opinion, it remains a one-of-a-kind classic, beautifully filmed with one of the most memorable endings ever to be put on film. Whatever one's opinion of the film.
In the last couple of years RIFIFI has become dangerously overpraised. Nevertheless, this French noir-classic shouldn't be forgotten. Go see it, before the remake is out there, in order to have some ammunition for comparing the two.
Camera Obscura --- 9/10