Viiltäjät

Fast-moving, exciting, violent crime thriller which can be considered as the French equivalent of GET CARTER (1971): the sole survivor of a gangland family, living in Bangkok, goes to Marseilles to exact revenge on the perpetrators of his two siblings' murder. Having a military background, he proves incredibly tenacious (unlikely action hero Jean Yanne is terrific in the role).

On his trail is American hit-man Gordon Mitchell (whose accent is hilarious – I'd actually watched bits of this in the past, a scene where he insists that his employer give him "Da Cash", but didn't realize back then it was supposed to be a good film!); aiding Yanne are a couple of agile Vietnamese; following his every move, then, is old pal Sterling Hayden as an FBI agent acting as liaison with the French Police. Hayden and Senta Berger (the only female character of note) as the duplicitous wife of one of Yanne's brothers don't get a lot to do, but their presence – along with that of ex-peplum star Mitchell – adds an offbeat touch to the somewhat familiar proceedings. Francois de Roubaix's evocative score is another major asset.

The action scenes are most skilfully handled – notably Mitchell's death (bitten by a cobra: the film, in fact, is also known as COBRA though it's a reference to Yanne's pistol of choice), an attack on an accomplice by the Asians which starts at his home and reprises in hospital and, best of all, the chief villain's death (a greedy politician who keeps vultures for pets – not very subtle, I know) which is actually quite similar to one of the highlights in GET CARTER (though this comes with its own electric twist). Unsurprisingly, the film supplies no happy ending for any of the protagonists.