Any Number Can Win
Henri Verneuil’s ‘Mélodie en Sous-Sol’ is an extremely stylised gangster film in which Charles (Jean Gabin) plans a ‘last’ heist at the Palm Beach Casino in Cannes with the unreliable ex-con Francis (a young Alain Delon).
Posing as rich high rollers, the pair scope out the Casino, and Delon woos a leggy Swedish dancer (Carla Marlier) in a hot-blooded courtship. It’s all part of the deliberate, precise groundwork laid for the heist, a masterfully realized sequence of calm, clean professionalism, and the delicious twist leads to a marvellous set piece of ironic understatement. Behind the continental cool and tasty flourishes is a tightly scripted, economically directed crime classic with a respect of craft that shows in every handsome frame. Claude Cerval plays the police detective on their trail and Viviane Romance, Maurice Biraud and Dora Doll co-star. Set in a Cannes of luxury cars, hotels, casinos and swimming pools by the sea and topped by the legendary last 20 minutes, ‘Mélodie’ is considered as one of the best thrillers and certainly among the most stylish movies of the early 1960s. Shown to mark the 50th anniversary of Gabin’s death on 15 November 1976. (Subtitles)
France 1963 Henri Verneuil 118m
