Captain Reichau (Bruno Cremer) has served in France's failed colonial wars in Indochina (Vietnam) and Algeria. Bitter and unemployed, has just served 3 years in prison for his part in the OAS's attempt to overthrow de Gaulle and keep Algeria French. He hangs out at the boxing gym run by one of his former troops, where a sign says "No Women Allowed" (Douard makes an exception for his Vietnamese wife, who works behind the bar, but regards other women as fatal to his proteges getting ahead in boxing.)
One day a model called Yo (Marisa Mell) turns up and talks Reichau into considering a heist she's planning with her partner Pierre (Jean-Claude Rolland), a pilot. They're after 500 million old francs, flown from Paris to Bordeaux each month: Pierre has contacts in Tangiers who will pay for them in dollars. Although he hates Pierre, who fingered him for his role in the attempted putsch, Reichau agrees to join the scheme. He devises an elaborate plan, but his motives aren't clear. He's not very interested in money or sex: perhaps he aims to double-cross Pierre, perhaps he needs action to feel alive.
The actual heist lacks tension and takes place in too much gloom. The best scene takes place in the gym, where Reichau tries to persuade his old comrades to revive their dream of going to Brazil. The trouble is that they're not interested, having all settled comfortably into civilian life. Despite the offer of a cushy, well-paid security job Reichau is lost outside the army and living in the past. Maybe the director was rather like that. He was captured by the Viet Minh at Dien Bien Phu and returned again and again to the subject of Vietnam.
The problem with this film for me was that I didn't care at all what happened. Cremer's never the most sympathetic of actors, Mell here is just a vacuous '60s "dolly bird" (Mini, leather gear etc.) and Rolland looks miserable throughout; he only appeared in 4 features and committed suicide the year after this one was released.
BTW, the director's son Frederic is a director, and I can recommend his "Crime Scenes" with Charles Berling.
The actual heist lacks tension and takes place in too much gloom. The best scene takes place in the gym, where Reichau tries to persuade his old comrades to revive their dream of going to Brazil. The trouble is that they're not interested, having all settled comfortably into civilian life. Despite the offer of a cushy, well-paid security job Reichau is lost outside the army and living in the past. Maybe the director was rather like that. He was captured by the Viet Minh at Dien Bien Phu and returned again and again to the subject of Vietnam.
The problem with this film for me was that I didn't care at all what happened. Cremer's never the most sympathetic of actors, Mell here is just a vacuous '60s "dolly bird" (Mini, leather gear etc.) and Rolland looks miserable throughout; he only appeared in 4 features and committed suicide the year after this one was released.
BTW, the director's son Frederic is a director, and I can recommend his "Crime Scenes" with Charles Berling.
