Review of Crooks in Clover

So this film starts out as clearly displaying its intent to be a film noir. The intrigue hits hard, the dialog and scenes are dense with an opaque atmosphere, there's tough guy talk and demeanor all over in each scene...and then, it switches right into all-out comedy. It appears the earlier bulk of the film was merely serving as an introduction then to a sort of ode to friendship and lightheartedness... but then the film towards the end goes back to its initial intrigue which seemed lost in the mix and made unimportant. It's not clear what the film is saying, and worse yet, it's not clear what the film...is. There are good scenes to be enjoyed, sure, but - what is this film really, as a whole ? Difficult to say. It would be difficult to summarize to someone as a plot as the film delves into various totally separate units, like it's some kind of collection of sketches and fun ideas to act out.

One of the last scenes with the half-deaf Delafoy father and all the shooting occurring in the house is hilarious, and the wacky sound samples used to mimic the shots in itself are a funny concept. Ventura's brutal uncompromising character is fun to watch, but all in all there's not enough in the plot for the actors to be more than comic book rubber-quality characters and for the viewer to care at all for them, making the plot irrelevant and all the attention drawn to the purely entertaining fiber of the comedy. There's no substance to it, it's all about just having fun, and nothing else. Even a comedy should have something to sensitize the viewer, and some kind of message towards the end.