Stars: Jean Servais, Carl Möhner, Robert Manuel, Marie Sabouret

This review is part of the feature:

The 33 Gangster Films You Can’t Refuse

Rififi – full title of the French release Du rififi chez les hommes – is an enormously influential heist film, inspiring classics like Reservoir Dogs, Ocean’s Eleven, The Usual Suspects, and Mission: Impossible.

The hard-boiled, hat-wearing criminal Tony le Stéphanois, played by Belgian actor Jean Servais, is released from prison after a five-year stint. He immediately scours the Paris underworld for his next lucrative score.

Along the way, he reconnects with his former lover, Mado (Marie Sabouret), who has since taken up with another dangerous criminal. In a brutal display of possessiveness, he beats her with a belt – a violent act that sows the seeds for later trouble once the loot is secured.

Tony soon finds his target: a diamond store. He plans to burglarize it at night with his protégé, Jo le Suédois (Jo the Swede), and two other accomplices.

Jules Dassin, a French-American director blacklisted in the U.S. for his communist sympathies, discovered the best-selling novel by Auguste le Breton, which he adapted for his first French film. Ironically, Dassin disliked the novel but needed the work.

With no budget for major stars, Dassin cast Servais in the lead and even took on a supporting role himself as César the Milanese (under the pseudonym Perlo Vita). Yet this proves no drawback: Servais is magnetic and unforgettable as Tony, and the supporting cast shines just as brightly.

The screenplay follows what is now a classic heist-movie structure: meticulous preparation, the heist itself, and a violent third act. The jewel store burglary stands as one of cinema’s most iconic sequences – a gripping, dialogue-free half-hour of pure tension.

The film earned widespread acclaim for its stunning cinematography by Philippe Agostini. The Daily Mirror called it “undoubtedly the best underworld story yet filmed”, while François Truffaut declared it “the best film noir I’ve ever seen.”

Dassin’s direction won the Best Director Award at the Cannes Film Festival, and for good reason. Few gangster films achieve such visual mastery – Rififi is truly spellbinding.