Great film. Melville's ingenious plotting and expressive cinematography leave you guessing.

Tightly wound crime film with appropriately dark performances. Some of the visuals are great too, but the centerpieces has to be the script. Great lines, solid pacing and full of intricacies that come together in a fantastic finale. A great nod to those classic noirs.

"Le Doulos roots itself in traditional noir themes of providence, of loyalty and betrayal, of male codes of honor, and ultimately of man's inability to escape his lot in life." - Nick Schager

Belmondo is cool, but he is outshone here by Serge Reggiani. A more world-weary portrayal of a noir anti-hero I have yet to see. The opening scene in that dingy little house - hell, even the opening credits as he walks to the house - sets the tone beautifully. Tired and trapped by a world he cannot escape and surrounded by people he cannot trust.

I was a bit too tired while watching it, but it's still an excellent film. I'll definitely need to give it another go.

87.750

Perfect. Belmondo's performance is spellbinding. It helps that he's backed up by an extravagant screenplay - he delivers his lines without a single lack of concentration, a truly fine actor. Melville's direction is much more sublime here than in Le Samourai - even though both are absolutely fine films. The only reason i compare them is because they're the only two Melville films I've seen and they weren't made far apart - '62 and '67.

Melville's films have always been more interested in character than in plot, and Le Doulos, despite its labyrinthian landscape of double crosses, is no exception: what Melville is after is their motives and their trustworthiness. As a viewer, you're never sure just who's on what side, and the film creates tension by never letting you in on everything. Even at the end, it's hard to figure out exactly what's happened. Le Doulos has all the class and style you'd expect from a Melville crime film.

In the famous run of the 60s french crime movies extravaganza, Jean-Pierre Melville led an entire army of gangster film fanatics to there final destination. This right here, Le Doulos, proves that in just moments of playing. Two-faced and undoubtly dealing with the theme of betrayal, everybody is against each other. There are no allies. Plus, it oozes with coolness.

Another '60s French crime film that has a real sociological interest in just who these crooks are and how their subculture works. Plus I strongly recommend you pay close attention, since the plot is highly complicated

Another dark and exciting Melville crime flick. A few missteps in the last act take this down a notch for me.

A convoluted, shadowy labyrinth of a film. The viewer is kept in the dark, constantly guessing, and the narrative takes many sharp and unexpected turns. Its understated nature makes this film no less gripping. Belmondo effortlessly plays it cool and stoic.

Melville does American-influenced crime movies as good as anyone. Wonderfully stylish and dark, with a gripping and beautifully constructed plot. The characters are well-realized and the atmosphere is tantalizingly melancholic. One might be inclined to single out Belmondo, but I actually think this is one of his less interesting and charismatic performances. More compelling is co-lead Serge Reggiani. Also worthy of mention is the sublime score by Paul Mizraki. Excellent film all around.

Great cast - it captured essence of film noir - but lacked subtle coolnes of the american equivalent. .

Another solid, beautifully shot crime film by Melville. Much too explanatory and rushed in parts, but still as slick as they come.

This is a very hip cool film, and I would rate it even higher if I could make sense of the plot.

An impressive labyrinth of a plot, with an excellent twist on it. The opening scenes of foggy streets and double dealings had me hooked in but I just don't care for Belmondo in this, and he's in a large portion. It's either the habits he picked up off Godard leaking into this film or he simply wasn't right for this part - idk - maybe a repeat viewing would change my mind. This would be one of my favs if it wasn't for him.

This slick crime flick had a surprising amount of twists and turns. Ruthless men trying to get away with terrible things, and the viewer is gripped by what takes place all the time. Dense, surprising and stylish.