gavin6942 Bob, a middle-aged gambler and ex-con living in the Montmartre district of Paris, experiences a run of bad luck that leaves him nearly broke. Bob is a gentleman with scruples, well liked in the demi-monde community. He has unsuccessfully tried to rob a bank in the past, and has spent time in prison.Vincent Canby, writing in 1981, noted "Melville's affection for American gangster movies may have never been as engagingly and wittily demonstrated as in Bob le Flambeur, which was only the director's fourth film, made before he had access to the bigger budgets and the bigger stars of his later pictures." "Bob le flambeur" influenced the two versions of the American film Ocean's Eleven (1960 and 2001) as well as Paul Thomas Anderson's "Hard Eight", and was remade by Neil Jordan as "The Good Thief" in 2002. What I love about this is how the genre comes full circle. With the western, it had to go to Italy before it come back and be reborn in the United States. Apparently for the gangster film, it had to detour through France.Seemingly, American studios could not be inspired by John Ford or William Wellman until their work was properly recognized by some European counterparts in the 1950s and 1960s. But that is not surprising.

Ore-Sama Absent of the stylization of "Le Samurai" and not as gritty or violent as crime thrillers of the 60's, "Bob the Gambler", from Jean Pier Melville, is none the less an important film historically for it's influence on the crime genre, heist films specifically. However, how does it hold up as a film?Certainly there is sufficient build up to the heist. We see every step of the planning, with plenty of twists and turns leading up to it, and once things get started, the suspense is certainly there, though without giving anything away, the suspense doesn't come the way one would expect it to, but the tension is definitely there. There is violence, though not a whole lot, and it's obscured, so don't expect much in the way of high octane gun action.While the sections of the film dealing with the heist itself, the planning, build up and execution would all be enough to make this a fine film, what elevates it even more is the characterization. Bob is a a retired criminal, who all ready served twenty years in prison. Now friends with a cop and living seemingly straight, he's none the less prone to gambling and losing. He takes a father like role to Paulo, who aspires to be like him, and takes a liking to a young woman, Anne. He's seemingly a good person, willing to help others whenever he can. However, when he loses most of his fortune on a foolish bet, he gets a team together for a grand scale heist. This film is about more than a heist, it's about a flawed man whose vices will ensure he is never completely on the straight and narrow. Paulo also falls prey to his desire to win over and impress Anne, at any cost. The highlight of the film for me is the characters, fully realized and done justice by fantastic performances from everyone involved. I won't spoil the ending, but it's one of those endings that makes you completely rethink your earlier perceptions.Cinematography, while not as amazing as "Le Samurai", is still something to appreciate, with clear influences from American crime and noir films.SHould be approached as more of a crime drama than a full out, action packed heist film. Definitely recommended.

odresel This is one of my all-time favorite films. I saw it in Boston around 1982 when the film was released, it seems for the first time, in the US. The acting, the script, the astonishing performances from actors unknown to most US audiences, the modernity of it all...and Isabelle Corey. Well, the French have a word for it.Paris, as always, steals the show to a certain extent, but that is one of the things (besides Isabelle Corey) that makes it worth viewing repeated times.The one thing that I am perplexed by is this: when I saw it in 1982, I am quite sure it had a *completely different, and happier ending*. What I recall is: The gang gets into the casino and holds the staff hostage as planned. Bob is late, but gets there in the end to see them trying to open the safe...but there is some complication with the locks and they fail, and decide to run for it. They make it outside, where the Commissaire and his men catch them. Paulo didn't die in this cut. They are all arrested, and as they're being put in the police cars, out come the pageboys carrying all the banknotes Bob won at the Chemin de Fer tables...so Bob knows they'll be alright in the end.In this case, I think the scene in the Criterion release where Melville comes on the voice-over and says "This is how the hold-up was supposed to take place" was actually seen at the end as the hold-up itself in the version I remember. As it is now, it's quite bizarre and something of a non-sequitur to see this scene placed, for no apparent reason, earlier in the film. This alternate ending also explains the odd situation several people have commented on, to the effect that Bob is seen after Paulo's death appearing not so concerned or saddened as we all think he should be.So it seems to me that Melville made two versions, and that perhaps for some markets it was felt that Paulo had to die, since he'd gunned down Marc the Slimeball a few hours earlier.They just do not make films like this anymore.

zardoz-13 Director Jean-Pierre Melville's carefully plotted heist caper "Bob Le Flambeur" (a.k.a. "Bob the Gambler") qualifies as an atmospheric exercise in film noir as well as one of the best French crime films about a robbery. During the first part of the action, Melville establishes the character of our ill-fated protagonist, while the second part concerns the planning and the execution of the crime. This vintage black and white robbery is reminiscent of the Hollywood film noir crime films and Melville does an effective job of setting up the robbery. Chiefly, "Rififi" scenarist Auguste Le Breton and Melville generate considerable tension because everybody, including the police, gets wind of Bob's plans. Mind you, this is a French language caper with English subtitles so only the most stalwart crime thriller aficionados may find this hold-up film enjoyable. The cast consists entirely of French actors and actresses, but the director, Jean-Pierre Melville, gained a reputation for making good crime films, including "Le Doulos" (1962) with Jean-Paul Belmondo, "Le Samouraï" (1967) with Alain Delon, "Le Cercle Rouge (1970) with Yves Montand, and "Dirty Money" (1972) with Richard Crenna.Bob (Roger Duchesne) has already served as stretch for attempted bank robbery and he survives on his ability to gamble and win, but he experiences a hard luck losing streak that leaves him temporarily broke. Meanwhile, he is a gracious guy who has helped out a lot of people, including Paulo (Daniel Cauchy) and Anne (Isabelle Corey), and he takes care of them as if they were his children. Bob is also close friends with a police investigator. It seems that he saved the cop's life when he shoved him out of the line of fire of a bullet. The police inspector genuinely cares about Bob and doesn't want to see him do anything stupid. Bob and his accomplicees decide to rob a Deauville casino. Ironically, the night of the hold-up, Bob wins a bundle at the gaming tables and loses all track of time.