Le Doulos

1962 [FRENCH]

Action / Crime / Thriller

21
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 90% · 27 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 90% · 5K ratings
IMDb Rating 7.7/10 10 13037 13K

jazz singer or musician betrayal weasel french noir betrayal by friend belmondo

Plot summary

Enigmatic gangster Silien may or may not be responsible for informing on Faugel, who was just released from prison and is already involved in what should be a simple heist. By the end of this brutal, twisting, and multilayered policier, who will be left to trust?

Director

Jean-Pierre Melville Photo
Jean-Pierre Melville

Top cast

Michel Piccoli Photo
Michel Piccoli as Nuttheccio
Carl Studer Photo
Carl Studer as Kern
Serge Reggiani Photo
Serge Reggiani as Maurice Faugel
Philippe Nahon Photo
Philippe Nahon as Remy
720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay
1001.24 MB
1280*766
French 2.0
NR
Subtitles fr  
23.976 fps
1 hr 48 min
Seeds 2
1.82 GB
1792*1072
French 2.0
NR
Subtitles fr  
23.976 fps
1 hr 48 min
Seeds 17

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by Red-Barracuda 7 / 10

Stylish French neo-noir

Le Doulos is a very good gangster noir from Jean-Pierre Melville. Like his other crime films its American influenced but with French style. It's really a recreation of the American film-noir of the 40's in 60's Paris. As such it's very stylised. Despite the time period, all of the actors look, act and dress like characters out of a hard-boiled movie from the 1940's. Trench coats and hats are the order of the day despite not being in the least bit in fashion in the 60's. The actors were all instructed to perform in a very controlled stylistic way that mimicked those old movies. This was seemingly something that Jean-Paul Belmondo found very unsatisfying, not surprising from an actor famed for working with Jean-Luc Godard whose style was extremely loose and off-the-cuff by comparison.Like noir, this one has a cast of characters where none are good in the traditional sense. It's about a thief who has just been released from prison. He immediately gets involved in criminal activity but is sold out to the police. He suspects his best friend is a police informer ('le doulos'). It's about betrayals, friendship and people assuming the worst of each other; the honour/dishonour of thieves. Of course, this being a noir, things do not run in a straightforward manner and there are several twists and turns before we reach the end. Look out also for an early cinematic nude scene featuring Fabienne Dali who also made a memorable appearance as a sexy witch in Mario Bava's Gothic horror film Kill, Baby…Kill!
Reviewed by filmalamosa 7 / 10

One irony too many

Gangsters and informants double crossing each other at every turn for past injustices. Not sure why the women were the worst informants no particular reasons given.In fact there are so many double crosses that a couple at the end confused me... Jean for instance.The movie was great until suddenly Silien (Belmondo) turns into a "good" gangster...then it loses steam and credibility which all comes down to over twisting the plot without credibility.The last twist was totally unneeded and ruins the ending...the "good" bad guys kill each other...it also makes it seem squirrelly some how.
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