Michel Deville had begun his career with an average thriller:"Une Balle Dans Le Canon" featuring ,among others ,Brigitte Bardot's sister Mijanou."Lucky Jo" was a return to the genre,but with much better results.The cast was very good (Eddie Constantine-generally relegated to mediocre B-movies- Georges Wilson,Françoise Arnoul,and the Brasseurs ,father and son),there was a nice score by Delerue and a good use of the wide screen.
Although marred by two or three rumbles ,the screenplay is certainly smarter than most French films noirs of the time.In fact,one thinks of Jean Pierre Melville,without all his metaphysical pretensions and all the numerous tedious parts which the "Cercle Rouge" director used to bestow on his ecstatic audience .
In "Lucky Jo" the characters hardly meet,except for the prologue when all their (illegal) attempts are failure .The villains work behind the scenes and the hero is alone most of the time ,or almost alone (since a dog becomes his mate).The Police seem to play a strange chess game ,and it is a joy to see Pierre and Claude Brasseur playing in the same film :to my knowledge,it is the only film when they portray the father and the son.
There are fine lines (written by Deville himself and his faithful Nina Companeez )sometimes influenced by Prevert:"I call a taxi and I call myself Jo".
Although marred by two or three rumbles ,the screenplay is certainly smarter than most French films noirs of the time.In fact,one thinks of Jean Pierre Melville,without all his metaphysical pretensions and all the numerous tedious parts which the "Cercle Rouge" director used to bestow on his ecstatic audience .
In "Lucky Jo" the characters hardly meet,except for the prologue when all their (illegal) attempts are failure .The villains work behind the scenes and the hero is alone most of the time ,or almost alone (since a dog becomes his mate).The Police seem to play a strange chess game ,and it is a joy to see Pierre and Claude Brasseur playing in the same film :to my knowledge,it is the only film when they portray the father and the son.
There are fine lines (written by Deville himself and his faithful Nina Companeez )sometimes influenced by Prevert:"I call a taxi and I call myself Jo".