José Giovanni, famous for his adventure and crimi movies (Deux Hommes dans la Ville (1973)) is also a good script-writer (he wrote the script of Le Clan des Siciliens (1969)). This movie based on the novel by John Carrick, shows us the killer Le Rital (Lino Ventura) who has to kill the president of a South-American country. He received his mission by a lawyer, a certain Chavez. His commissioners all look to be partisans for the revolution but Le Rital is not trusting anyone and after the cold-blooded murder of the president he will have a lot of trouble to fly out of the country. His dialogues with an idealistic revolutionary, Chico, are interesting because they determine the motivation for each one to commit this murder. Le Rital says: "with this money I can have any woman I want". At another occasion he prohibits Chico to follow him, saying: "I will end up at the end of a rope". At the end we are not sure of what is going to happen at last: will he be shot by the troops of general Alguirez? The action in the movie is quite realistic but one has to bee a good shooter to kill a moving person at more than two hundred yards. Le Rital is a professional and he and his rifle are one, he is the man who never misses. Lino Ventura is the right cast for this somewhat underestimated movie.

I know this movie since my childhood and I just discovered it, with another glance. I like this film, an adventure yarn with no love interest and a deep character study, with no good nor evil guys, only grey characters. Lino Ventura plays here a rough and so shaded character. The checkers scene is very useful to understand both rivalry between the killer and the Mexican. By the way El Bosco character actor will be used four years later by Jose Giovanni in LA SCOUMOUNE, as the Jean Paul Belmondo's sidekick. This Mexican actor's role is interesting mainly thanks to the presence of his little monkey friend. Unusual.

I have always thought that José Giovanni's early efforts ("La Loi du Survivant" "Dernier Domicile Connu" "Deux Hommes dans la Ville ") were his best.His heroes were jaded men,whose fight was lost before the story began.

Take "Dernier Domicile Connu" :Lino Ventura and Marlene Jobert play two cops;the woman is a rookie full of illusions whereas the older cop has lost all his ones .

The precedent movie "Le Rapace" pits an idealist,Chico,against a mercenary (Ventura) in an imaginary South America dictatorship.The splendid cinematography ,a sense of exoticism and above all,François de Roubaix's marvelous score (and song in Spanish) makes this film an admirable adventures movie ,to rival the best of John Huston.