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Le Doulos (1963)

tomatometer

88

Average Rating: 7.8/10
Critic Reviews: 8
Fresh: 7 | Rotten: 1

No consensus yet.

audience

89

liked it
Average Rating: 4.1/5
User Ratings: 2,321

My Rating

Movie Info

Confusion and wrong assumptions are the cause of tragedy in this stylish gangster noir by director Jean-Pierre Melville. Maurice (Serge Reggiani) and Silien (Jean-Paul Belmondo) are friends going way back, and both have had a shady past. Silien wants to leave his illegal activities behind him -- but would he actually be in league with the police, as an informer? That is what Maurice suspects after he kills a fence who is responsible for the murder of one of his friends and then takes some jewels

Oct 7, 2008

Rialto Pictures

Cast

All Critics (22) | Top Critics (8) | Fresh (25) | Rotten (1) | DVD (11)

As good as Melville's setups are, the joys of the movie keep returning to Belmondo, then and now the king of effortless cool.

October 26, 2007 Full Review Source: Detroit Free Press | Comment
Detroit Free Press
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A tour de force.

September 7, 2007 Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | Comment
Los Angeles Times
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Even back in 1962, Melville made the usual suspects feel new by wrapping them in gorgeous desolation.

July 18, 2007 Full Review Source: Entertainment Weekly | Comment
Entertainment Weekly
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A cool, classy treat.

June 29, 2007 Full Review Source: Newark Star-Ledger | Comment
Newark Star-Ledger
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A slippery, gripping cops-and-robbers thriller, full of twists and turns and ending with a tragicomic shootout you'll never forget.

June 27, 2007 Full Review Source: Salon.com | Comment
Salon.com
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Mr. Belmondo, as usual, maintains a sinister air, but it has no particular meaning, beyond showing that a crook is a crook is a crook.

May 9, 2005 Full Review Source: New York Times | Comment
New York Times
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Le Doulos proves it: No one rocks the trenchcoat and fedora (or beats a snitching woman cuffed to a radiator) quite like Jean-Paul Belmondo.

October 6, 2008 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | Comment
Slant Magazine

Le Doulos roots itself in traditional noir themes of providence, of loyalty and betrayal, of male codes of honor, and ultimately of man's inability to escape his lot in life.

October 6, 2008 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | Comment
Slant Magazine

The macho criminal underworld of French filmmaker Jean-Pierre Melville has a nasty, nearly misogynistic edge here...

February 15, 2008 Full Review Source: Sun Publications (Chicago, IL) | Comment
Sun Publications (Chicago, IL)

Even if you're not a fan of this sort of narrative trickery, it must be said that Le Doulos is simply a hell of a thriller ...

September 12, 2007 Comment

The movie is a tough, stylish, deliciously complex labyrinth of underworld double-crosses that, like most of the other Melville noirs, ultimately celebrates honor among thieves.

September 6, 2007 Full Review Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer | Comment
Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Melville is a mythmaker. His characters are archetypes of the cinema, specifically American cinema, though his outlook is unmistakably French, tinged with romanticism.

August 29, 2006 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | Comment
TV Guide's Movie Guide

Few films have focused so intently on proper underworld etiquette.

January 26, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out New York | Comment
Time Out New York
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Le Doulos

Terrific 'stylized' French noir! (Does anyone else think that Serge Reggiani looks like Mr. Bean?)

March 18, 2009
flixsterman
Randy Tippy

Super Reviewer

easily one of the most gripping and fulfilling films i have ever seen. the film has enough twists to fill a lifetime, shifting the direction of the characters so often to keep one glued to the story but no too often so as to confuse. a perfect blend of mystery and suspense with noir like lighting and style. one of

March 24, 2009
sanjurosamurai
danny d

Super Reviewer

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Foreign Titles

  • Der Teufel mit der weißen Weste (DE)
  • The Finger Man (Le Doulos) (UK)
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