''Touchez pas au grisbi'' (,
French for "Don't touch the loot"), released as ''Honour Among Thieves'' in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
and ''Grisbi'' in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
, is a 1954
French-
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
crime film based on a novel by
Albert Simonin. It was directed by
Jacques Becker and stars
Jean Gabin
Jean Gabin (; 17 May 190415 November 1976) was a French actor and singer. Considered a key figure in French cinema, he starred in several classic films including ''Pépé le Moko'' (1937), '' La grande illusion'' (1937), ''Le Quai des brumes'' ...
,
René Dary,
Paul Frankeur,
Lino Ventura,
Jeanne Moreau,
Dora Doll
Dora Doll (born Dorothea Hermina Feinberg; 19 May 1922 – 15 November 2015) was a French actress.
Career
One of her first screen appearances was as Juliette in Henri-Georges Clouzot's ''Manon'' (1949). She appeared as Lola in Jacques Becker's ...
, and
Marilyn Buferd. The film was screened in competition at the 1954
Venice Film Festival
The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival h ...
.
The film is the first installment of the so-called "Max le Menteur trilogy", which are all based on novels by Simonin, but feature different characters; it was followed by ''
Le cave se rebiffe'' and ''
Les tontons flingueurs'', both of which are more comedic than ''Grisbi''.
Plot
Max, a principled middle-aged Parisian gangster, has dinner at Madame Bouche's restaurant, a hangout for criminals, with his longtime-associate Riton, their much younger burlesque-dancer girlfriends, and Max's protege Marco. The group then goes to crime-boss Pierrot's nightclub, where the girls perform and Max gets Marco a job as a drug dealer working for Pierrot. After the show, Max discovers Riton's girlfriend, Josy, making out with Angelo, another gangster, but he does not tell Riton.
On the way back to his apartment, Max notices he is being followed by two of Angelo's men in an ambulance. He gets the drop on them and chases them away, after which he calls Riton and warns him not to go with Angelo, who has just asked Riton to do a job with him. Max takes Riton to an apartment no one knows about and shows Riton that he has been storing the eight gold bars they stole during a recent heist at
Orly Airport
Paris Orly Airport (french: Aéroport de Paris-Orly), commonly referred to as Orly , is one of two international airports serving the French capital, Paris, the other one being Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG). It is located partially in Orly ...
in the trunk of a car parked in the building's garage. Upstairs, the two friends eat a simple meal, during which Max tells Riton about Josy and Angelo and gets Riton to admit he had hinted to Josy about the big score to impress her. Max surmises Josy told Angelo, who planned to kidnap Max and Riton and beat the location of the gold out of them that night. He reveals he is sick of the criminal lifestyle and plans to retire with the money from the airport heist, and tells Riton to leave Josy to the younger Angelo.
The next morning, Max leaves early to take the gold to his uncle, a
fence
A fence is a structure that encloses an area, typically outdoors, and is usually constructed from posts that are connected by boards, wire, rails or netting. A fence differs from a wall in not having a solid foundation along its whole length.
...
who tells Max he needs some time to gather enough money to buy the gold. Max returns to his apartment and finds Riton has left, so he calls the Hotel Moderna, at which both Josy and Riton live, and is told by the porter that Riton was there, but was just taken away in an ambulance. Assuming Riton went to see Josy and was caught by Angelo's men, Max considers leaving his friend in the lurch, even going to see Betty, his wealthy (possibly American) girlfriend, when she calls, but, by that night, he has decided to save Riton.
Max gets Marco, and the pair go to the Hotel Moderna, where Max roughly, but unsuccessfully, interrogates Josy and the porter about where Angelo could be hiding Riton, while Marco captures Fifi, one of Angelo's henchmen, who was watching for Max to come by. They take Fifi to the nightclub to get Pierrot's help interrogating him, but Fifi does not seem to know anything useful. Angelo, alerted to Max's location by a henchman staking out the nightclub, telephones and proposes to trade Riton for the gold, and Max agrees. He, Marco, and Pierrot arm themselves, get the gold, and head out in Fifi's car.
On a deserted country road, Riton is returned unharmed, and Max hands over the gold. After Angelo's car drives away, Riton warns Max that Angelo had traveled with a second car, which appears in the distance. Angelo's henchmen blow up Fifi's car with hand grenades, killing Marco, and come to mop up the scene, but Max, Pierrot, and Riton gun them down and take their car to chase Angelo. A shootout ensues, during which Riton is wounded and Angelo's car crashes. Angelo attempts to throw a grenade at Max's group, but he gets shot and the grenade blows him up and sets his car on fire. As a truck approaches, Max is forced to leave the gold in the hotly-burning wreck.
Back at Pierrot's, Riton is patched up by a mob doctor. Riton urges Max to go about his normal routine to avoid suspicion that he was involved in the previous night's carnage, so Max takes Betty to Madame Bouche's for lunch. Everyone is talking about the recovery of the stolen gold from the wreck of Angelo's car, and some other diners ask Max if he believes Angelo was really the thief. Max calls to check on Riton and learns Riton has died. He plays his favorite song on the
jukebox
A jukebox is a partially automated music-playing device, usually a coin-operated machine, that will play a patron's selection from self-contained media. The classic jukebox has buttons, with letters and numbers on them, which are used to sele ...
and sits down to eat.
Cast
*
Jean Gabin
Jean Gabin (; 17 May 190415 November 1976) was a French actor and singer. Considered a key figure in French cinema, he starred in several classic films including ''Pépé le Moko'' (1937), '' La grande illusion'' (1937), ''Le Quai des brumes'' ...
as Max, known as Max "le Menteur" ("the liar"), a Parisian criminal
*
René Dary as Henri Ducros, known as "Riton" (a diminutive form of "Henri"), Max's best friend and accomplice
*
Dora Doll
Dora Doll (born Dorothea Hermina Feinberg; 19 May 1922 – 15 November 2015) was a French actress.
Career
One of her first screen appearances was as Juliette in Henri-Georges Clouzot's ''Manon'' (1949). She appeared as Lola in Jacques Becker's ...
as Lola, a dancer who is seeing Max
*
Paul Frankeur as Pierrot, a night club owner and underworld boss
*
Jeanne Moreau as Josy, a dancer who is leaving Riton for Angelo
*
Vittorio Sanipoli
Vittorio Sanipoli (1915–1992) was an Italian stage, film and television actor. He appeared in around a hundred films and television series between 1942 and 1980.
Life and career
Born Luciano Sanipoli in Genoa, he made his acting debut in 1939 ...
as Ramon, one of Angelo's henchmen
*
Marilyn Buferd as Betty, Max's wealthy girlfriend
*
Gaby Basset as Marinette, Pierrot's wife and the manager of his club
* Paul Barge as Eugène, the man who helps Max carry the gold up to Oscar's office
* Alain Bouvette as Taxi Driver
*
Daniel Cauchy
Daniel Cauchy (13 March 1930 – 8 May 2020) was a French film actor and film producer, producer. He was known for his role in Jean-Pierre Melville's 1956 crime film ''Bob le flambeur''.
He died from COVID-19 pandemic in France, COVID-19.
His s ...
as Fifi, Angelo's henchman that is caught by Marco and tortured by Pierrot
* Denise Clair as Madame Bouche, the owner of a restaurant
*
Angelo Dessy
Angelo Dessy (10 July 1907 - 17 January 1983) was an Italian actor. He appeared in more than fifty films from 1940 to 1974.
Filmography
References
External links
*
1907 births
1983 deaths
Italian male film actors
{{Italy-fil ...
as Bastien, one of Angelo's henchmen
*
Michel Jourdan as Marco, Max's protege
* Paul Oettly as Oscar, Max's uncle and
fence
A fence is a structure that encloses an area, typically outdoors, and is usually constructed from posts that are connected by boards, wire, rails or netting. A fence differs from a wall in not having a solid foundation along its whole length.
...
* Jean Riveyre as Porter at the Hotel Moderna
*
Delia Scala as Huguette, Oscar's secretary
*
Umberto Silvestri as one of Angelo's henchmen
* Lucilla Solivani as Nana, Pierrot's secretary
*
Lino Ventura as Angelo Fraiser, an ambitious criminal with his own gang
Background
French actor
Daniel Gélin was first offered the role of Max, but he turned it down, seeing himself as too young for the part.
Jean Gabin
Jean Gabin (; 17 May 190415 November 1976) was a French actor and singer. Considered a key figure in French cinema, he starred in several classic films including ''Pépé le Moko'' (1937), '' La grande illusion'' (1937), ''Le Quai des brumes'' ...
then agreed to play Max, and the film helped to relaunch his career, which had been suffering since the end of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
.
''Touchez pas au grisbi'' marked the film debut of
Lino Ventura.
Reception
The film was the fourth-most popular release at the French box office in 1954.
On
review aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, the film has a
100% approval rating based on reviews from 25 critics, with a
weighted average
The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...
score of 8.30/10. It is also on
Roger Ebert's "Great Movies" list.
References
External links
*
*
*
Film pageat Box Office Story
''Grisbi'' movie review at The New York TimesLast accessed: July 3, 2014.
''Touchez pas au grisbi: A Neglected Master''an essay by Philip Kemp at the
Criterion Collection''Touchez pas au grisbi: Strange Reflections''an essay by
Geoffrey O'Brien
Geoffrey O'Brien (born 1948 New York City, New York) is an American poet, editor, book and film critic, translator, and cultural historian. In 1992, he joined the staff of the Library of America as executive editor, becoming editor-in-chief in 19 ...
at the
Criterion Collection
{{DEFAULTSORT:Touchez Pas Au Grisbi
1954 films
1954 crime films
Italian gangster films
French black-and-white films
1950s French-language films
French gangster films
Films about organized crime in France
Films directed by Jacques Becker
Films with screenplays by Albert Simonin
Italian black-and-white films
1950s Italian films
1950s French films