Synopsis
Gentleman gangster Max and his partner, Riton, pull off their last, most successful heist and find themselves comfortable enough to retire in the style they enjoy. However, Max confides the details of the theft to his younger mistress, Josey -- who has secretly taken up with ambitious young rival gangster Angelo. Angelo then has Riton kidnapped and demands the stash of gold as ransom, which threatens Max's dreams of the perfect retirement.
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Cast
- Jean GabinMax dit Max le Menteur
- René DaryHenri Ducros dit Riton
- Lino VenturaAngelo Fraiser
- Paul FrankeurPierrot
- Michel JourdanMarco
- Paul OettlyOscar
- Jeanne MoreauJosy
- Dora DollLola
- Gaby BassetMarinette
- Vittorio SanipoliRamon
Recommendations
- 100
Los Angeles Times
A wonderful treasure from the seemingly inexhaustible cornucopia of crackling French crime dramas. - 100
San Francisco Chronicle
The magic here is all in the telling: in the graceful, laconic direction of Jacques Becker. - 100
Chicago Sun-Times
Max is played by Jean Gabin, named "the actor of the century" in a French poll, in Jacques Becker's Touchez Pas au Grisbi, a 1954 French crime film that uncannily points the way toward Jean-Pierre Melville's great "Bob Le Flambeur" the following year. - 88
Boston Globe
Roughly translated, Touchez pas au Grisbi means ''don't touch the loot.'' But in literal terms, this film version of Albert Simonin's blockbuster really couldn't care less who ends up with the cash. - 80
Chicago Reader
Jean Gabin wasn't yet 50 when he starred as a big-time, high-style gangster hoping to retire, but he still looks pretty wasted, and this pungent tale about aging and friendship, adapted from a best-selling noir thriller by Albert Simonin, would be hard to imagine without his puffy features. - 70
L.A. Weekly
Grisbi is hard (new subtitles bring out the chill of the gangsters' argot) and gray: a meditation on what we are left with when life has let us down, played out in the haunted eyes of Jean Gabin. - 60
Variety
Jeanne Moreau turns in a neat bit as a moll and Dary as the inarticulate aging Romeo friend is memorable. - 50
TV Guide Magazine
Often confusing, especially during the first half, but Gabin and Ventura are well cast as hoods.
