Rififi

Jules Dassin, 1955, France, bw (7.8*)

This is a tightly plotted and gripping jewel heist movie, has the perfect film noir look, and appears very much a mid-40's American film, which stands to reason since director Jules Dassin was from Connecticut. Beautiful black and white photography, and lead actor Jean Servais actually looks like a criminal. Rififi, as we find out in an insane night club song, is "rough and tumble", and "the women like a little rififi". The 30-min heist sequence is superb, but the problem for me is that the last half hour of the film is almost anti-climactic by comparison, so the pace could be more even. Still, as the father of the heist genre, a must see, especially for noir fans.