(1955; b/w, French) In the Parisian nightclub L'Age Dor, Viviane (Magali Nöel) the singer provides the definition of director Jules Dassin's noir film in a song's lyrics: a battle cry of tough guys meaning "rough 'n' tumble."

Released early after five years from prison for good behavior, Tony le Stephanois (Jean Servais), having taken the rap for his friend Jo (Carl Möhner) - who lives with Louise (Janine Darcey) and her five-year-old kid Tonio (whom he refers to as his godson) - calls on his pal for cash during a cheap poker game. Happy-go-lucky Mario (Robert Manuel) meets them at a café for coffee with a scheme to rob a jewelry shop in broad daylight.

Wanting no part of the job, Tony goes to L'Age Dor in search of Mado (Marie Sabouret), who went off with a gigolo soon after Tony went to the pen. Now she's rival gangster Pierre Grutter's girl: "It was him or someone else." Making her remove her jewelry, her fur coat, and then the rest of her clothes, Tony lacerates her back before kicking her out.

Changing his mind, Tony agrees to the heist, but on his terms: no guns and instead of the rocks in the window they go for the safe. Mario contacts his dapper Italian friend Cesar Ferrati (Jules Dassin), an expert safecracker. With a fence in London, Tony and Jo, the gang's strong man, reconnoiter the street; Cesar cases inside the shop; most of the preparation involves figuring out how to silence the store's sophisticated alarm system.

Beginning near midnight, the four hoods surprise the concierge and his wife, who reside above Mappin and Webb's jewelry shop, blindfolding, binding, and gagging the couple, before painstakingly opening a hole into the store's ceiling, using an umbrella to catch the debris. No one speaks during the operation, drilling with Cesar's special tools through the back of the safe, which they complete about 6 a.m.

The newspapers announce the spectacular larceny valued at 240,000 francs. Mario says he'll use his share with Ida (Claude Sylvain) on hotel beds; Cesar has four decent but ugly sisters for whom he'll buy husbands; Jo plans on spending his loot on his kid; Tony doesn't say.

At first everything comes off as hoped with perfect timing, but then everything goes wrong. While Jo takes a flight to London to clinch a deal with Levantine the fence, Pierre (Marcel Lupovici) eyes the reward of ten million francs. Cesar the romantic makes the mistake of giving a diamond ring to Viviane. After Mario and Ida are murdered, Tony finds Cesar the rat. Rémi, Pierre's junkie thug, kidnaps Tonio, threatening Louise he'll kill the boy if Jo fails to deliver the gems.

When Jo returns with their share of the money, Tony sternly orders him not to trade the 120 million francs for the kid. In despair over the loss of her son, Louise tells Jo that the real tough guys were the poor kids like him who didn't become hoodlums. Disgusted by the kidnapping, Mado reverses her allegiance, offering to help Tony locate the child wearing a cowboy outfit with toy guns.

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Copyright © 2008 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
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