The movie in itself is nothing special : a gangster movie, directed in a classic and worn-out way, with no specific directing whatsoever. And with a slow pace - in French, we will say a movie "à la papa", meaning a cinema made with too much comfort. But we have some of the best Audiard's dialog and one-liners and that changes everything! Gabin, Blier, and the rest of the cast, pretty decent, helps as well, but without the chiseled lines from Audiard, it would have just been average.
7.0Keywords: counterfeitcounterfeiter
Plot summary
"Le Dabe" retired many years ago and now he lives in the Tropics where he owns stables and horses. He is a very rich man. He was the king of all money counterfeiters. He is contacted from Paris to organize a new job. He says no. But when he finds out the the currency that should be counterfeited is the Dutch florin, he accepts immediately. He retired after having counterfeited 100 florin notes just before the Queen Wilhelmina retired them from circulation. He flies to Paris. But the gang is not to be trusted, at least not all of them.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
Director
Top cast
Movie Reviews
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Average old style gangster movie with marvelous dialogs
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Rather a spoof
Made by Gilles Grangier, a minor director whose films were not that bad ,"Le Cave Se Rebiffe" was a bit tongue in chick ,not to be taken seriously.Maurice Biraud was a touching character,lost in a world of crooks,counterfeiters and traitors.
Michel Audiard -who finally began to direct his own movies in the late sixties:"Faut Pas Prendre Les Enfants Du Bon Dieu Pour Des Canards Sauvages" starring Françoise Rosay ,etc-came up with some of his best lines .
My favorite line:Gabin comes to see Rosay and asks her for some "paper" for his job (forger).But the merchandise does not satisfy him and he answers: You can use them as paper cones of chips!(=bags of chips) Not much food for thought but very funny and entertaining.
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Ill-gotten gains never prosper
'Touchez-pas au Grisbi' was the first in the Max le Menteur trilogy of Albert Simonin. The film under review is the second and 'Les Tontons Flingueurs' the third. All three adaptations have dialogue by the great Michel Audiard. This is the eighth collaboration of director Gilles Grangier with the irrepressible Jean Gabin whose career had been revitalised by 'Grisbi' in 1956. He has here one of his best roles of the 1960's as a master counterfeiter.There is tremendous support from Bernard Blier, Frank Villard, Balpetre, Martine Carol, Ginette Leclerc and the imperious Francoise Rosay. It is Gabin who is gifted the best lines notably 'the greatest failed businesses are built on trust'! Extremely entertaining with never a dull moment. Comedy is a serious business of course but I would like to think that the cast had as much fun in making this film as I had in watching it.