Typically bleak, noirish treatment of the criminal underclass where everyone is a cynic, doublecrosser, smoker, drinker...where the women function only as sex toys and where the only exit is a bullet in the back. Black and white nihilism brought into the half-light for us to peer at in fascination and revulsion.
By this point in his career (1962) he had the formula down pat. Jim Thompson/Ed McBain brought to the mean streets of Paris. These films had a compelling draw to film buffs back then and still work quite well because of the excellence of his craft. And who knows...the way things are going, maybe nihilism will have its own renaissance.
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