Le Cave se rebiffe (1961)
Directed by Gilles Grangier

Film Review

By the late 1950s, the polar - or noir-style crime drama - had become one of the dominant genres in French cinema.  Director Jacques Becker had effectively set the ball rolling with his seminal thriller Touchez pas au grisbi (1954), after a decade that had seen numerous attempts by French filmmakers to mimic American film noir (most successfully in the totally derivative Lemmy Caution series).  At the start of the next decade, the polar underwent a spectacular bifurcation, creating a comedy off-shoot, the comédie policière, that proved to be just as popular with audiences (far less so with critics) as the straight policier.  Perhaps the best example of this new sub-genre was Georges Lautner's Les Tontons flingueurs (1963), the most revered French gangster comedy.  It's hard to believe, but this film and Becker's 1954 noir classic came out of the same stable, both deriving from two novels in a series by the popular crime writer Albert Simonin.

The second entry in Simonin's Max le menteur series (between Grisbi and Tontons), Le Cave se rebiffe (published in 1954) was made into a film in 1961, the same year that saw the release of Georges Lautner's Le Monocle noir (1961).  The success of these two films (parodying gangster and spy movies respectively) effectively established the comedy thriller in France, and over the following decade it became one of the country's most popular cinema genres.  Instrumental in the success of the comédie policière was the screenwriter Michel Audiard, who scripted some of the genre's best offerings, as well as a fair number of more serious films.  In the 1950s, Audiard had worked on several straight thrillers, including Gas-oil (1955), Maigret tend un piège (1958), Le Désordre et la Nuit (1958) and 125, rue Montmartre (1959).  His decision to adapt Le Cave se rebiffe in a comic vein was a radical departure from what had gone before and may have been partly prompted by attempts by the critics (most notably those on the highly opinionated Cahiers du cinéma) to make him emblematic of the cinéma de papa.

What could so easily have ended up as a dry and lacklustre sequel to Touchez pas au Grisbi became something very different through Audiard's inspired comic reworking of Simonin's novel, very little of which actually ended up in his final script.  If Grisbi set the polar band wagon in motion in the mid-1950s, Le Cave se rebiffe assuredly made its comedy cousin a French cinema mainstay in the following decade.  Another curious coincidence is that both of these films should have the same lead actor - Jean Gabin.  It was Audiard, a close-friend of the actor, who persuaded him to take on the role after presenting him at his home with a script which, apparently, was too good to turn down.

In the early 1960s, despite the buffeting it was getting from critics and the wild young Turks of the French New Wave, commercial cinema was on a roll and its most bankable asset was Jean Gabin.  At a time when a hoard of fresh new acting talent was coming to the fore (headed by such charismatic stars-in-the-making as Alain Delon, Jean-Paul Belmondo and Brigitte Bardot) Gabin remained an unassailable icon of French cinema, even more so than he had been in his glory years of the 1930s.  Now into his late fifties, the actor was no longer the gentle proletarian hero but the stern patriarch, most comfortable when playing resolute cops or hardened crooks.  It was Grisbi that gave Gabin his tough new persona in the mid-1950s, and it was Le Cave se rebiffe that allowed the actor to slant this in a comic direction seven years later, making him the king of the comedy tough guys (although he soon had stiff rivalry in this domain from his friend Lino Ventura).

Michel Audard proved to be of great help to Gabin in helping him to develop his new screen personas through the 1950s and '60s.  He scripted 17 of Gabin's films in total, including some notable successes - Gas-oil, Les Grandes familles, Le Baron de l'écluse and Un singe en hiver.  Another man Gabin had in his debt was Gilles Grangier, who had directed him on seven films prior to Le Cave se rebiffe (one of their most successful collaborations) and four more films afterwards.  Despite his 'old school' associations, Grangier was immensely popular with cinema audiences throughout his long and prolific career and was particularly adept in the policier genre - both its straight and comedic variants.  Le Désordre et la nuit, one of his finest associations with Gabin, stands up well alongside the other great films policiers of the decade, including those by the Cahiers' Gallic noir poster boy Jean-Pierre Melville.  Gilles Grangier was far more than the journeyman director his detractors would have us believe.  He was a highly technically efficient filmmaker able to get the best from his actors, and with a solid record of making quality films that appealed to mainstream cinema audiences - but with a special aptitude for noir-style thrillers.

Le Cave se rebiffe may not be in the league of Grisbi and comparable 'serious' hard-boiled policiers but it does make an effective and highly entertaining spoof, finding no end of humour in the familiar (and frankly tired) gangster set-up.  An incredible ensemble of acting talent is well-served by Audiard's argot-rich, relentlessly funny dialogue, with Gabin at his comedic best as a criminal mastermind trying hard not to lose his cool as he imposes his idea of discipline on an unruly gang of incompetent misfits.  Bernard Blier is no less amusing in the kind of role (the over-excitable stooge) that would define much of his subsequent career, prefiguring one of his best-loved comedy performances in Les Tontons flingueurs.  Gabin and Blier make a formidable pairing.  They had starred alongside one another - with great success - as Valjean and Javert on Jean-Paul Le Chanois's lavish Les Misérables (1958), and also worked together on five other noteworthy films, including Crime et chatîment (1956) and Le President (1961).

Taking the lead female role is Martine Carol, excelling in a moll-type part that gave an immediate boost at a time when her career was in terminal decline.  Sadly, this was to be one of her last great screen performances before her untimely death in 1967.  Carol had appeared with Gabin in Raymond Lamy's Miroir (1947), when the latter actor was struggling to regain his popularity in France after WWII, before becoming a major star on the back of Richard Pottier's hit Caroline chérie (1951).  Two other notable actresses from Gabin's early period - Ginette Leclerc and Françoise Rosay - make very welcome cameo appearances, adding a touch of class in what would otherwise have been a predominantly male production.  With such an impressive cast and such a strong script from Michel Audiard, Le Cave se rebiffe could hardly fail to be a box office winner (in France it had a respectable audience of 2.8 million), but the critics of the time were generally less enthusiastic.  Today, the film remains incredibly popular in France, a shining example of the 1960s comedy gangster pastiche alongside Les Tontons flingueurs.

Film Synopsis

Brothel owner Charles Lepicard is desperately in need of a new source of income when the introduction of a new law threatens his business.  What better way to make money than by setting up a new counterfeiting operation?   Éric Masson, a cocky young hoodlum, owes him money and is easily persuaded to assist him in his new venture, along with crooked notary Lucas Malvoisin.  As luck would have it, Masson happens to be sleeping with Solange, the attractive wife of an expert engraver Robert Mideau.  Because he has no knowledge of the criminal underworld, Mideau would seem to be the ideal accomplice.  In the argot of the Milieu, he is the perfect 'cave' - an innocent who can be easily duped by his criminal associates into creating the required forged plates.

All too soon, Lepicard realises he is out of his depth and needs the help of a more experienced crime lord if he is to make a success of his new enterprise.  To that end, he turns to Ferdinand Maréchal, nicknamed 'Le Dabe', who is presently enjoying a peaceful retirement in Venezuela.  The prospect of easy money lures Maréchal back to Paris, where the counterfeiting operation is soon well under way at a disused printing works.  Maréchal's insistence on taking control of the enterprise soon begins to grate with his three partners in crime, who come to resent his authoritarian style.  Maréchal likewise has nothing but contempt for his less experienced associates, whom he considers imbecilic amateurs on account of their incompetence and childish vanity.

The only member of the team that Le Dabe has any time for is Mideau, an amiable and dependable grafter who clearly is not quite so naive as he seems.  Little do these two know that Lepicard and Masson are planning to double cross them, fleeing with their ill-gotten gains once their business has been concluded.  Mideau anticipates this betrayal and gets in first, absconding with the mass of forged banknotes before Masson, Lepicard and Le Dabe turn up to collect their share of the booty.  By the time his treachery is discovered, Mideau is already at the airport, waiting to be joined by his accomplice.