In its violence and speed and vigour, this absurd jungle of the imagination is more or less bound to photograph well; Melville, however, does a particularly clean job of direction.

| Mar 16, 2020

Le Doulos is all about style and trenchcoats and hats, and, while I tend to prefer Melville's later, color films (Le Samourai, Army of Shadows, Le Cercle Rouge, Un Flic), this one is still recommended.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jul 12, 2019

Jean-Pierre Melville presents a murky criminal underworld in his gangland classic.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 23, 2017

It's a moody, ruminative lowlife crime drama winding up with as many corpses on the floor as Hamlet, and pungent with the sweaty maleness of Melville's tough-guy pictures.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 11, 2017

[A] flawed but fascinating crime thriller ...

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 11, 2017

Some amazing moments, but something of a drag all told.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 10, 2017

Superbly shot in high-contrast monochrome, it unfolds in a stylised universe where character is defined by actions and costumes rather than words.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Aug 7, 2017

The Mbius strip of noir ambiguity, as hard and shivery and tortuous as can be

| May 19, 2014

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Nov 18, 2011

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 17, 2011

Le Doulos roots itself in traditional noir themes of providence, of loyalty and betrayal, of male codes of honor, and ultimately of man's inability to escape his lot in life.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Oct 6, 2008

The macho criminal underworld of French filmmaker Jean-Pierre Melville has a nasty, nearly misogynistic edge here...

| Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 15, 2008

Does it matter that what we're seeing is not necessarily what we're getting? Not at all. The movie is entirely about how it looks and feels.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Feb 15, 2008

As good as Melville's setups are, the joys of the movie keep returning to Belmondo, then and now the king of effortless cool.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 26, 2007

Even if you're not a fan of this sort of narrative trickery, it must be said that Le Doulos is simply a hell of a thriller ...

Full Review | Sep 12, 2007

A tour de force.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Sep 7, 2007

The movie is a tough, stylish, deliciously complex labyrinth of underworld double-crosses that, like most of the other Melville noirs, ultimately celebrates honor among thieves.

| Original Score: A | Sep 6, 2007

Even back in 1962, Melville made the usual suspects feel new by wrapping them in gorgeous desolation.

| Original Score: B+ | Jul 18, 2007

A slippery, gripping cops-and-robbers thriller, full of twists and turns and ending with a tragicomic shootout you'll never forget.

Full Review | Jun 27, 2007

Melville is a mythmaker. His characters are archetypes of the cinema, specifically American cinema, though his outlook is unmistakably French, tinged with romanticism.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 29, 2006