Le Doulos [dir. Jean-Pierre Melville]

The opening screen of Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le Doulos clarifies that the title is street slang for 'Hat-wearer' but it also refers to a police informant (what in vintage American crime slang is called canary or stool pigeon). But before we meet the Doulos, we are introduced to Maurice (Serge Reggiani), a gangster just out from prison. Maurice is uneasy about a new job, discussing it with a friend, a jewelry fence who seems to be very understanding and generous to him, willing to lend him money and even a gun...which Maurice then uses to shoot him.

Next we see Maurice being visited by his friend Silien (Jean-Paul Belmondo), a man everyone else seems to dislike / distrust. Silien has his own agenda, and he is also revealed to be Le Doulos in cahoots with the police. In a series of suspicious actions, Silien seems to be setting his friend up to be hauled in by the law, and also taking care of some other people to clear his own path. He is seen as a cold-blooded snakily ambitious sort with no scruples about how he achieves his aims. Later the film pulls out a dramatic reveal that wants us to re-evaluate many of the characters' actions.

Le Doulos is one of Melville’s early efforts in the crime genre he was best known for (Le Samourai, Le Cercle Rouge). We see the familiar stylistic tropes: The adoption of American noir fedora and trenchcoat fashions, the shadowy cinematography, the male bonding, the essential loneliness of the lead characters. But as a film, it comes across less smoothly. The twist reveal seems labored in its explanation, and some scenes like the one between Belmondo and Michael Piccoli are hard to swallow (you’d think a seasoned gangster would know an obvious frame-up and even at gun-point would realize that obeying the instructions would anyway lead to his death). The climax also seems more clumsy and drawn out, diluting the irony.

Le Doulos does have its good moments, like the shocker where a smiling Belmondo rough-houses “buddy” Maurice’s girlfriend (Monique Hennessy) for motives as yet unknown. The technical values are also fine for a low-budget independent production. On the whole this is still an interesting progenitor to, if not as well-constructed and smooth as, Melville’s later crime flicks.