Gérard Bedecarrax, nicknamed Bédé, is the dauntless right-hand man of a notorious
Paris gang leader. Nothing could be easier for him than to meet
up with another gang and exchange a large sum of money for some
drugs. Unfortunately, one of the gangsters just can't contain the
urge to fire off some lead. In the ensuing bloody gun fight, five
men are killed. The only survivor, Bedecarrax takes the drugs and
the money and takes flight. He ends up hiding out in a centre for
juvenile delinquents. Bédé might have had an easy life were
it not for the fact that someone is determined to reclaim the money...
It was American film noir and pulp fiction that kick-started the craze for thrillers in 1950s France and made it one of the most popular and enduring genres.
Science-fiction came into its own in B-movies of the 1950s, but it remains a respected and popular genre, bursting into the mainstream in the late 1970s.
In the 1940s, the shadowy, skewed visual style of 1920s German expressionism was taken up by directors of American thrillers and psychological dramas, creating that distinctive film noir look.