Review of Bob le Flambeur (1956) by Van R — 02 Oct 2009

The carefully plotted heist caper BOB LE FLAMBEUR (a.k.a. BOB THE GAMBLER) qualifies as an atmospheric exercise in film noir as well as one of the best French crime films about an organized robbery. During the first part of the action, director Jean-Pierre Melville establishes the character of our ill-fated protagonist, while the second part concerns the planning and the execution of the crime. This vintage black and white robbery is reminiscent of the Hollywood film noir crime films and Melville does an effective job of setting up the robbery. Chiefly, RIFIFI scenarist Auguste Le Breton and Melville generate considerable tension because everybody, including the police, gets wind of the heist plans of Bob and his associates. One associate has a loose tongue and that spells the beginning of bad things. The ending is not exactly what youâ??d expect and involves large doses of irony. Mind you, this is a French language caper with English subtitles so only the most stalwart crime thriller aficionados may find this hold-up film enjoyable. The cast consists entirely of French actors and actresses, but the director, Jean-Pierre Melville, gained a reputation for making good crime films, including LE DOULOS (1962) with Jean-Paul Belmondo, LE SAMOURAI (1967) with Alain Delon, LE CERCLE ROUGE (1970) with Yves Montand, and UN FLIC (1972) with Richard Crenna. Nick Nolte starred in the remake THE GOOD THIEF from director Neil Jordan.

Bob (Roger Duchesne) has already served as stretch for attempted bank robbery and he survives on his ability to gamble and win, but he experiences a hard luck losing streak that leaves him temporarily broke. Meanwhile, he is a gracious guy who has helped out a lot of people, including Paulo (Daniel Cauchy) and Anne (Isabelle Corey), and he takes care of them as if they were his children. Bob is also close friends with a police investigator. It seems that he saved the cop's life when he pushed him out of the line of fire of a bullet.