"Rififi" throbs with the feel of hard men grumbling to one another in fedoras, walking dank, cloud-covered streets, referring to cash as dough and backsides as moneymakers.
One of the original one-last-big-score flicks, the muddy French drama rattles with an air of desperation and angst. Part of that may come from the gut of director Jules Dassin, an American whose career was trampled by the blacklist and who was living in poverty and exile before given the chance to direct the 1955 film.
The other source of the mood may have been the overcast skies, which Dassin insisted on having throughout filming. On sunny days, he delayed production of the low-budget film, perhaps contributing to the actors' angst and frustration, which showed up on camera. The surly crew of jewel thieves seems believably angry and fed up with straight society, which they exploit with vengeance.
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Hardly pausing for breath, Dassin introduces the characters and establishes the plot with rushed momentum. The figures emerge with stark clarity: At the core is Tony (Jean Servais), a hardened professional with a soft side. He's just gotten out of jail, having taken the fall for Jo (Carl Möhner) on a past caper. Tony dotes over his godson — Jo's son — and faintly envies the family life he never had. Quentin Tarantino cribbed this plot dynamic and Jo's name for his coming-out party, the jewel heist flick "Reservoir Dogs." The influence of "Rififi" endures — it's slated for a 2007 remake starring Al Pacino.
Jo, deeply grateful to Tony, cuts him in on a jewel-store knockoff he has planned with Mario (Robert Manuel), a brash whoremonger.
Jo and Mario want to pull a rush job, bashing in the store window and dashing to a getaway car, but Tony insists they take a lower-risk, higher-reward tactic by doing reconnaissance, making a plan and robbing the safe. They recruit a safecracker, Cesar, played by Dassin himself under the pseudonym Perlo Vita.
As a director, Dassin is of the same mind as Tony — a detail man. Too much so, in fact, for Mexican authorities of the time, who yanked "Rififi" from theaters after copycat burglars used techniques in the movie for robberies.
Indeed, the heist is clear and logical enough to work as a how-to manual. The team methodically cases the jeweler, then sets up a simulation lab in which the men test out just how heavy a vibration the alarm model can handle before it goes off, as well as ways to stifle the sound.
Once the job is on, out pops the movie's centerpiece, a half-hour sequence without score or dialogue. The criminals operate with finesse and precision, communicating in nods and gestures. The elaborate maneuver involves ballet slippers, a fire extinguisher and a small muffled hammer.
Once the task is accomplished, the film still has a ways to go. Dassin is every bit as concerned with the aftermath as the crime itself. A crime can be perfect in conception and execution, but resolution is another thing entirely. Matters of conscience, distrust, greed and treachery defy all blueprints. The final act, paced with murders, chases and a kidnapping, is where the "rififi" comes in.
Auguste Le Breton apparently invented the word "rififi" for his novel, on which the film is based. The term is meant to encompass the rough and tumble essence of tough guys. In the film, a slinky nightclub singer croons about the finer points of "rififi," in the showstopping, silhouette-backed style the James Bond films would copy for their opening titles.
But although 007 has been through his share of danger over the years, he doesn't know rififi like Dassin's film noir.
Rififi (1955). Not rated. Starring Jean Servais. Directed by Jules Dassin. 115 minutes. In French, with English subtitles. Available on DVD. For links to other reviews in the series, go to www.azstarnet.com/sn /review.
