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If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

I have always loved this film since I discovered it, back in 1981. We don't see such features anymore. I would have never guessed to watch Michel Constantin and Ted De Corsia - the two best heavies for their own movie industry - together in the same film. And nearly in the same sequence. I will also say that Roy Scheider plays here a role, a character which reminds me the one the had in MARATHON MAN, WAGES OF FEAR, L'ATTENTAT, roles where he is not the lead but a character who is important and who also dies before the end.

--that is the embodiment of the stripped-down, lean, hard look of LA 'noir-in-broad-daylight' crime drama of the early 70's. Trintignant plays a 'shades of Camus' hit-man who's imported from France to make a completely impersonal hit on an organized crime figure he does not know; Scheider is the equally stony hit-man hired to kill him (I get a laugh out of the mental picture of these two actors probably having on-set competitions to see which one could remain the most poker-faced throughout the shoot. Tough call as to who'd win). Ann-Margaret is fetching and somewhat pathetic as Trintignant's hooker ex-flame who puts herself in danger to protect him in spite of his apparent coldness and indifference to her; Angie Dickinson is suitably ice-maidish as the crime boss's widow who has her own hand involved in his murder, and Alex Rocco is suitable sleazy as her lover and the boss's heir apparent. There are also some funny bits from Georgia Engel as a dippy housewife who manages to cross the paths of both hit men (and wants to know aloud 'where the TV people are' when she gets questioned by the cops a second time), and quick appearances by John Hillerman and Talia Shire. The ending is a particularly bleak 'nobody wins' scenario that smacks hard of French Existentialism; in fact the film's whole chill sensibility makes it easy to spot the European influence. The old Venice Amusement Pier also makes an effective guest appearance in all its rotting glory. A pretty good film in its own right, and if you're feeling a degree of nostalgia for the period, the backgrounds make for a good dose of the era's look and feel.

Being a native of Los Angeles, it's great a treat to see a overview of the city in 1973 supposedly from the plane to brings Trintignant. There are shots of "The Classic Cat", a club that no longer exists on Sunset Blvd. The chase scene filmed in Venice, CA, are also places that no longer exist as most of the development was still under construction. The music score is by Michel Legrand, whose "Umbrellas in Chernburg" is classic, here a little jarring, maybe intentional. Trintignant plays a hit man from France, who does commit cold blooded murder, so he's a bad guy. Roy Schneider, pre-Jaws, plays an even more gum chewing, sadistic killer after Trintignant.Ann Magret, at this time, was having a difficult time having just recently lost her father in real life. She plays her part well, but it is unclear why her charactor would go out on a limb for Jean-Louis T., as his charactor treats her with sheer indifference. Angie Dickerson is a 70's babe that gives A.M. competition in the eye candy department.The shoot out scene at the end of the movieis quite weird, the corpse in the funeral parlor displayed in a sitting position with cigar in hand and Trintigant's cohort being dragged by a hearse through the graveyard.A 3 out of 5.

Bizarre mixture of elements: character study, romance, crime melodrama and action flick. Terrifically filmed on vivid Los Angeles locales by a French director and crew, story follows foreign hit-man on assignment in L.A. being tracked down and targeted for death. Some of the characters here are delicious: Jean-Louis Trintigant is super-cool as the French gunman, Roy Scheider is his nemesis, Ann-Margret sad and desperate as a former flame of Trintigant's boss, Angie Dickinson as the cheating wife of a Bel Air crime czar, Georgia Engel as an innocent housewife who manages to get involved. Subtle--some may say somnambulant--thriller, less frenetic than most American pictures in the crime genre, with emphasis on character detail and emotion. Unusual and worth-watching. **1/2 from ****