La Loi des hommes (1962)
Directed by Charles Gérard

Film Review

If Charles Gérard is remembered today it is most likely for his work as an actor, notably in several films directed by his good friend Claude Lelouch in the 1970s - L'Aventure, c'est l'aventure (1972), La Bonne année (1973).  Before he became an actor, Gérard started out by directing a series of serviceable crime films that left no doubt they were closely modelled on American B-movies of the 1950s.  La Loi des hommes is one of Gérard's more respectable thriller offerings, stylishly serving up the familiar clichés with the help of an impressive cast and a cracking script.  Gérard was never the most original or inspired of filmmakers but with this convoluted potboiler he delivers a creditable imitation of an American film noir, garnished with an over-generous helping of 1960s Gallic pizzazz.

Micheline Presle and Arletty are the two biggest names in the cast, and are easily the film's main attraction.  If Presle is well-utilised, cool and calculating as a Raskolnikov-like femme fatale obsessed with the perfect crime, Arletty is pretty well wasted in a peripheral role, although both bring legitimacy to an otherwise routine film.  Philippe Leroy supplies further muscle on the acting front as the driven cop who goes maverick to resolve a murder case, excelling in the part that would doubtless have gone to Robert Mitchum or Dana Andrews if the film had been made in Hollywood.  Pierre Mondy and Marcel Dalio are less impressive - they seem to be holding a private competition to see who can overact the worst.  On the plus side, the characters have slightly more depth to them than your average French policier of this era, but the well-oiled plot offers few surprises and ends more or less where you expect it to, with yet another trashed car (Gérard's trademark).

Film Synopsis

Paris in the early hours.  A hold-up of incredible daring has just been committed in broad daylight.  Two crooks managed to make off with a van laden with a fortune, leaving the driver for dead.  As the police trail the van to a garage the crooks transfer the money to a car and make a swift getaway.  Once they have stashed the loot in a locker at Orly airport and sent the key on to their boss the two men go on their way, but are incinerated when their car explodes - their reward for executing the perfect job.  On television, the famous columnist Sophie Givier gives her opinion on the heist.  She describes it as a masterpiece, conceived by a brilliant mind.  Dandieu, a mule-headed policeman with a glittering future, is struck by Sophie's comments and begins to suspect that Sophie might herself be the brains behind the gang which carried out the robbery.  He knows he must act carefully, because Sophie has many friends in high places.  If he charges her without evidence it could well be the end of his career.  As Dandieu begins to pursue Sophie they both gradually succumb to an unexpected mutual attraction...