Du rififi chez les hommes
Tony "le Stéphanois" has served a five-year prison term for a jewel heist and is out on the street and down on his luck. His friend Jo approaches him about a smash-and-grab proposed by mutual friend Mario in which the threesome would cut the glass on a Parisian jeweler's front window in broad daylight and snatch some gems. Tony declines. He then learns that his old girlfriend, Mado, took up in his absence with gangster Parisian nightclub owner Pierre Grutter. Finding Mado working at Grutter's, Tony invites her back to his rundown flat. She is obviously well-kept, and Tony savagely beats her for being so deeply involved with Grutter. Tony changes his mind about the heist; he now accepts on the condition that they rob the jeweler's safe instead of the window. Mario suggests they employ the services of Italian compatriot César, a safecracker. The four devise and rehearse an ingenious plan to break into the store and disarm its sophisticated alarm system.
The caper begins with the group chiseling through a cement ceiling from an upstairs flat on a Sunday night. The suspenseful break-in completed, the criminals appear to escape without leaving any trace of their identities. However, without the others' knowledge, César pocketed a diamond ring as a bauble for his lover Viviane, a chanteuse at Grutter's club. The four men arrange to fence the loot with a London contact. Meanwhile, Grutter has seen Mado and her injuries, who breaks off their relationship. Infuriated at Tony's interference in his life, he gives heroin to his drug-addicted brother Rémy and tells him to murder Tony. Grutter sees the diamond César gave to Viviane and realizes that César, Mario, and Tony were responsible for the jewel theft. Grutter forces César to confess. Forsaking a 10 million franc police reward, Grutter decides to steal the jewels from Tony's gang, his brother Rémy brutally murdering Mario and his wife Ida when they refuse to reveal where the loot is hidden. Tony retrieves it from the couple's apartment and anonymously pays for a splendid funeral for them. He then goes looking for Grutter and stumbles onto the captive César, who confesses having squealed. Citing "the rules," Tony ruefully kills him.
Meanwhile, seeking to force their adversaries' hand, Grutter's thugs kidnap Jo's five-year-old son Tonio and hold him ransom. The London fence arrives with the payoff, after which Tony leaves to single-handedly rescue the child by force, advising Jo it is the only way they will see him alive. With Mado's help he tracks Tonio down at Grutter's country house and kills Grutter's brothers Rémy and Louis while rescuing him. On the way back to Paris, Tony learns Jo has cracked under the pressure and agreed to meet Grutter at his house with the money. When he arrives Grutter tells him Tony has already snatched the child and kills Jo. Seconds too late to save his friend, Tony is mortally wounded by Grutter before killing him as he tries to flee with the loot. Bleeding profusely, Tony drives maniacally back to Paris and delivers Tonio home safely before dying at the wheel as police and bystanders close in on him and a suitcase filled with 120 million francs in cash.
suspenseful, murder, bleak, violence, cult, atmospheric, romantic, revenge