Raymond Pellegrin
The renowned Insurance International Co. has created an enquiry network, headed by detective Jack Clementi, to defend itself against insurance fraud. Jack has saved the company enormous amounts of money throughout his successful investigations and his bosses are more than willing put up with his brusque manners, his disconcerting frankness, and his intolerance for any form of company bureaucracy. Yet he is a big guy with a huge heart.
The movie starts with an interview with director Claude Lelouch. He pleads viewers not to disclose the plot of the movie after leaving the projection room. Even the movie's trailer shows only a long sequence of faces gazing speechlessly in space. "Like all my movies, this one is about a man and a woman", says Lelouch in the interview.
Un séducteur à l'accent italien tente d'échapper à la police qui le poursuit pour un crime qu'il n'a pas commis.
The film follows four families, with different nationalities (French, German, Russian and American) but with the same passion for music, from the 1930s to the 1960s. The various story lines cross each other time and again in different places and times, with their own theme scores that evolve as time passes. The main event in the film is the Second World War, which throws the stories of the four musical families together and mixes their fates. Although all characters are fictional, many of them are loosely based on historical musical icons (Édith Piaf, Josephine Baker, Herbert von Karajan, Glenn Miller, Rudolf Nureyev, etc.) The Boléro dance sequence at the end brings all the threads together.
A gangster (Daniel Duval) incurs the wrath of the patriarch of a well-established crime family.
After an elderly crime boss retires from business, his three lieutenants each inherit a piece of his empire: Max is given the kidnapping ring, while the prostitution racket and the drug trafficking go to the others. Max is not satisfied with his share, and after killing the old boss he gets rid of the other two lieutenants. However, a police officer finds a lighter at the murder scene which could lead to Max, who then kidnaps the policeman's daughter.
Antonio Gramsci, sentenced to twenty years in prison by the fascist tribunals, relives the stages of his political career and private life.
A school bus with young children being kidnapped. Commissario Betti will solve the case. High action is promised, including hostage, bank robberies, car chases, prison scenes and mafia bosses!
A young Viennese policeman can not free himself from his mistress and is also extorted over his illegal arms business.
The film focuses on Murri; the token maverick cop. He is called in after a bunch of criminals pull off a successful prison break and spend the night picking off various informers and people they don't like. Murri investigates; hooking up with one of the criminal's nieces along the way. He uses his own methods; which mostly involve breaking all the rules, and thus comes under a lot of scrutiny from his superiors who don't take too kindly to the cop's way of working.
In wartime France, Pharmacist Elaine (Lisa Gastoni) begins a torrid affair with her shop assistant Armand (Franco Nero), but she soon becomes dominated by him. He demands more & more from her, humiliating her & putting her family at risk.
Joe Dallesandro plays a hungry young buck who aspires to be a career criminal. He starts out working at a warehouse for a gangster where he helps to relocate illegal contraband, and because of his ruthlessness and dependability he begins to ascend the ladder of organized crime. Of course, the more powerful he becomes, the more "Climbers" come out of the shadows to take his place.
An armored van is attacked and the gangsters hide the loot in a graveyard.
A man contemplates revenge after his daughter is killed in a bank heist.
Luc Merenda gives the performance of his career as a highly regarded police detective who is taking syndicate money in exchange for departmental favors. His father, a simple man, also works for the department but on a lower rung; he isn't jealous of his son, but rather proud of him, little knowing that he's a crooked cop. A series of events leads the young detective to ask his father for a favor (he wants a certain police report that is desired by the syndicate) and it doesn't take long for the detective's father to realize his son is on the take... which leads to numerous complications.
In this period piece set in Italy, Nicola Bellizzi dreams of becoming a lawyer. However, when he seeks the reason that people are reluctant to help him in his goals, he discovers that some of his blood relations are high-ranking members of the Mafia. He tries to break away from his family obligations, but falls into a life of crime and violence.
The yacht of millionaire Hellmann explodes in the Mediterranean Sea, with him and 8 men crew on board. Insurance agent Lucas investigates at the Cote D'Azur, because there's the suspicion that it could have been suicide. He finds out that Hellmann's villa was monitored, the tapes also contain information about the explosion. He uses them for blackmail.
Two mafia bosses, Don Antonio Marchesi and Don Peppino Scalise, battle over building contracts in Palermo.
Paris 1960. DeGaulle determines to end a bitter war in Algeria by granting its independence. Millions oppose him, including a group of DeGaulle's disenchanted Arm Officers. In a desperate attempt to save the colony for France, they plan a daring jailbreak of their imprisoned leader. A network of snitches inform a tenacious detective leading to an explosive three-way cat-and-mouse game among the rebels, the Gaullist politicos and the police.
Camille, Dov and Joëlle live on the edge of society and are involved in petty theft helping them to buy their drug doses and to survive as best they can. One day, while attempting to rob a movie theater, they activate the alarm signal and it is Pierre, Camille's brother, who is doing a heist in the same building, who is arrested red-handed. The three young people decide to kidnap a police officer and exchange him for Pierre.
An esteemed surgeon, Charles Bernard, and his family are victims of a violent home invasion. When his young child is held for ransom, Charles must decide whether to comply or fight back.
In this French crime thriller, you can leave the mob, but the mob won't leave you. Louis (Jean Yanne) has retired to a Thailand plantation with an Asian wife and child. Back in Marseilles, however, because a no-holds-barred gang war has broken out, Louis' large collateral family is wiped out, and he is family are slated for destruction.
A U.S. Treasury Department agent is sent to Morocco to find a fortune in counterfeit money hidden by the Nazis during World War II. The agent escapes from prison with the only man who knows the location of the bogus bills. The duo is shadowed by a group of former Nazi soldiers who hope they will lead them to recover the lost loot. The feature plays as a crime drama with overtones of international espionage.
In the third and final episode of the trilogy, Fantômas imposes a head tax on the rich, threatening to kill those who do not comply.
Maigret is about to leave for the holidays but a colleague asks him for help in investigating the mysterious murder of a stripper and a noblewoman, both of which took place in Pigalle.
A gangster escapes jail and quickly makes plans to continue his criminal ways elsewhere, but a determined inspector is closing in.
The struggle between a ruthless leader of a bank robbers - Raymond Pellegrin - and the cops who are determined to put him in jail for long.
In the second episode of the trilogy Fantômas kidnaps distinguished scientist professor Marchand with the aim to develop a super weapon that will enable him to menace the world. Fantômas is also planning to abduct a second scientist, professor Lefebvre.
A secret agent is dispatched to find a rare and valuable drug.
In this romantic drama, a middle-aged gambler tells a casino croupier her life story. The story is told in flashback and chronicles the woman's romantic exploits with men. Though she was involved with many men, only one really touched her heart. He was a bartender who was tragically shot and killed during an attempted robbery. She later marries and has a daughter. Unfortunately she alienates herself from her daughter when she has an affair with her daughter's fiance. Her remorse is short lived. The film jumps back to the present with the woman leaving the casino on the arm of a handsome millionaire.
Manuel Artiguez, a famous bandit during the Spanish civil war, has lived in French exile for 20 years. When his mother is dying he considers visiting her secretly in his Spanish home town. But his biggest enemy, the Spanish police officer Vinolas, prepared a trap at the hospital as a chance to finally catch Artiguez.
Eddie Carbone, a Brooklyn longshoreman is unhappily married to Beatrice and unconsciously in love with Catherine, the niece that they have raised from childhood. Into his house come two brothers, illegal immigrants, Marco and Rodolpho. Catherine falls in love with Rudolpho; and Eddie, tormented but unable to admit even to himself his quasi-incestuous love, reports the illegal immigrants to the authorities.
The Marquis Rodolphe de Sombrueil accidentally runs over a working man with his carriage and helps his widow -- unjustly accused of robbery -- to find her missing daughter.
The tale of the famous vendetta, vengeance over the years between two families. For nearly nothing at the start, as always with Sicilians or Corsican people, from the underworld or not...
An English teacher seduces a young student in the company of his wife to help him in an ambitious plan with the kidnapping of a newborn baby of a wealthy businessman.
Dany Robin plays the title character in the French comedy Mimi Pinson. The plot is strictly formula stuff, with Mimi being thwarted on all sides by those who have designs on her money and her virtue. Happily, our heroine triumphs over her foes and predators, finding true romance in the arms of Raymond Pellegrin.
Just released from prison after serving a six-month sentence, Fernand Bastia goes into hiding. He has indeed double-crossed his gang by keeping part of the product of a robbery for himself. Thanks to his sister Marcella, Fernand has taken refuge in a small circus where she works. There, he falls in love with Gina but also arouses the jealousy of Quedchi, a fairground stall-holder who has seen him hiding the stolen money. After a while, Fredo Riccioni, the boss of the gang and his men, manage to trace him...
During the second world war, two British officers, Brand and Leith, who have never seen combat are assigned a vital mission. Their relationship and the operation are complicated by the arrival of Brand's wife, who had a tryst with Leith years earlier.
Arlette thinks she has made a wonderful gift to her daughter Sylvie, who has just married François Morel, a young journalist. And, to tell the truth, not everybody receives a posh little bar like the Royal Montmartre as a gift. The trouble is that Monsieur Jo, the former owner of the joint is also the boss of a gang of drug traffickers. And that he has managed to persuade the pair of naive lovebirds to drop a painting to a friend on their way to their honeymoon place. Now the picture is stuffed with drugs! The honeymoon trip promises to be eventful...
Tensions mount as the lonely wife of a trucker becomes involved with a gas station attendant.
The film follows the life of Napoleon from his early life in Corsica to his death at Saint Helena. The film is notable for its use of location shooting for numerous scenes, especially at the French estates of Malmaison and Fontainebleau, the Palace of Versailles, and sites of Napoleonic battles including Austerlitz and Waterloo.
In this romance, a jilted lawyer joins the French Foreign Legion to help him forget his faithless love. While in the desert he espies a village beauty who is the exact double of his true-love.
A dam is under construction in the Pyrénées mountains. All the workers only have eyes for pretty, sensual Clara, the canteen waitress. And what she exchanges with many of them is more than just looks, this is for sure. Nevertheless, despite her frivolity, Clara falls truly in love with Tonio Borelli, the site foreman. The latter takes her to Paris and they marry. But Clara soon realizes that the call of the flesh still consumes her...
The renowned theatre manager, Paul Rémy, is accused by his general secretary Andrieux of having killed his partner. On the advice of his wife Mona, Paul goes into hiding in a psychiatric hospital to escape from the police. But Andrieux seduces Mona who then turns against her husband.
Three events that seemingly nothing related, namely the murder of a truck driver, the discovery of the corpse of a vitriolic young woman, and the death of another who was crushed, will launch the Inspector Maréchal on the trail of a prostitution network. The girl-mother Olga, a friend of the trucker, confesses her the underwear of the women's exploitation.
Smuggler's Ball is the English-language title for this French-Belgian seriocomedy. The action takes place along the borders separating Belgium, Holland and France. It is here that the worldly Pierre (J. P. Kieran) carries on a profitable smuggling operation, all the while romancing Siska (Christian Lenier), the daughter of a local customs official. Various subplots and secondary characters weave in and out as the plotline guides the viewer through the WW II years. Towards the end, the story shifts gears when the Benelux Frontier Agreement eliminates all government regulations. The film's screenplay is by Charles Spaak, himself the descendant of a Belgian political family, and thus well-versed in bureaucracy and red tape.
Marcel Pagnol's adaptation of his own novel Manon des sources, the story of a shepherdess who exacts her revenge on the townsfolk she blames for killing her father, in two parts: Manon des sources and Ugolin.
Originally titled Nous Sommes Tout des Assassins, We Are All Murderers was directed by Andre Cayette, a former lawyer who detested France's execution system. Charles Spaak's screenplay makes no attempt to launder the four principal characters (Marcel Mouloudji, Raymond Pellegrin, Antoinine Balpetre, Julien Verdeir): never mind the motivations, these are all hardened murderers. Still, the film condemns the sadistic ritual through which these four men are brought to the guillotine. In France, the policy is to never tell the condemned man when the execution will occur--and then to show up without warning and drag the victim kicking and screaming to his doom, without any opportunity to make peace with himself or his Maker. By the end of this harrowing film, the audience feels as dehumanized as the four "protagonists." We Are All Murderers was roundly roasted by the French law enforcement establishment, but it won a special jury prize at the 1952 Cannes Film Festival.
Charles Walter, a forestry contractor, has helped Noël Portal to start a new life. When Victor, the new foreman and Charles'wife's lover, is found murdered, everything points to the guilt of the deceived husband. To save his benefactor, Noël decides to accuse himself of the the crime. He is condemned to death.
Toine, the local hunchback, works at the tile manufacturing plant, but during the summer, he gives a hand to Micoulin, the farmer, thereby being able to spend more time close to Nais, Micoulin's daughter. That summer, the estate owner's son, Frederic Rostaing, decides to rest on the farm during his vacation from Law school. But his real motives are to seduce young Nais, whom he knows from their childhood days, after having seen her in town. Who will win the power struggle between the possessive father, the naive daughter, the vile student and the golden-hearted cripple?
