Touchez Pas au Grisbi - Criterion Collection

Touchez Pas au Grisbi - Criterion Collection
by Jacques Becker

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DVD Cover Information

Actor: Dora Doll, Jean Gabin, Marilyn Buferd, Ren? Dary, Vittorio Sanipoli
Director: Jacques Becker
Brand: Image Entertainment
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled)
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC, Special Edition, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 96 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-01-18
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Criterion

Movie Reviews of Touchez Pas au Grisbi - Criterion Collection

Movie Review: Nostalgic, taut French crime thriller w/ the incomparable Gabin
Summary: 5 Stars

I just wanted to post this review to give it the 5 stars that it deserves.
I won't be as detailed in my review but the prior reviews have said what I have been thinking about this movie for the past 12 months.
I rewatched this wonderful movie last night. I must say...Jean Gabin is such an incredible actor. So much like our Spencer Tracy except he can say so much with just a glance and a mere change in his facial expression can say it all. I have seen him in some incredible Jean Renoirs and other movies of his from the 1930's...it is so neat to constrast the world weary 1954 Gabin character with his lively traveler from 20 years earlier.

This film is frank, brutally honest about aging criminals who operated with a touch of class. They resorted to primitive violence when they needed to.

I love contrasting this free film w/ the tighter censorship of American film noirs. It is darker and it just seems more realistic than the typical Hollywood film noir treatment. The skating around the expression of female nudity (granted they were pictures on the wall of the nightclub) and seduction scenes were fascinating to contrast too.

The female actresses were fun to watch and linger over. Some were absolutely beautiful and support the claim of France having some incredible women.

I love how all the characters were developed slowly and it closes with a finger gripping climax. I was NEVER bored from the first minute on.

I cannot recommend this movie any more than I am now. If you are a fan of Jean Gabin, French movies pre-new Wave, or if you don't mind subtitles for your crime dramas...enjoy this tightly scripted 94 minute film. You will not be disappointed and this will stay with you for a long, long time!

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Summary of Touchez Pas au Grisbi - Criterion Collection

Jean Gabin is at his most wearily romantic as aging gangster Max le Menteur in the Jacques Becker gem Touchez pas au grisbi (Hands Off the Loot!). Having pulled off the heist of a lifetime, Max looks forward to spending his remaining days relaxing with his beautiful young girlfriend. But when Riton (Ren? Dary), Max's hapless partner and best friend, lets word of the loot slip to loose-lipped, two-timing Josy (Jeanne Moreau), Max is reluctantly drawn back into the underworld. A touchstone of the gangster-film genre, Touchez pas au grisbi is also pure Becker-understated, elegant, evocative.

Grisbi isn't the hero's name but a bit of French slang meaning "loot," which is what drives this elegant Gallic crime thriller. Jean Gabin (Grand Illusion) stars as Max, a suave, smooth, elder statesman of a gangster who still manages to hook a pretty young damsel on his arm when he strolls into his favorite restaurants and nightclubs. Max belongs to the old world of criminals, where a romantic code of loyalty rules, but he's confronted by the postwar generation of ruthless, ambitious thugs when affable drug dealer and aspiring mob boss Angelo (Lino Ventura) discovers the secret of his loot. He strikes at Max's weak link, his thickheaded best friend and partner Riton (Ren? Dary) and delivers an ultimatum: the money or the man. Director Jacques Becker (Antoine et Antoinette) takes his time with the tale, turning such digressions as a simple meal or an informal consultation into a fully realized scene with a rhythm and a drama all its own. He also enriches the film with a wonderful gallery of characters (including a small but delightful turn by young Jeanne Moreau as a pouty gold-digging chorus girl). The film sometimes dawdles but never drags, and every scene is energized by Gabin's cagey, confident Max, a worldly figure of grace and dignity who turns ruthless when a friend's life is at stake. --Sean Axmaker

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