- Touchez Pas Au Grisbi, roughly translated to "Hands Off The Loot", is an impressive film noir from the French director Jacques Becker. The story follows the gangster Max (Jean Gabin) who, as we eventually discover, has recently completed his last heist. He's at the age where he worries more about getting enough sleep than chasing girls, and all indications are that he hopes to retire to spend his remaining years peacefully listening to his favorite record. In talking to his good friend and accomplice Riton (Rene Dary), it is amusingly obvious that he has had enough of the fast life and thinks it's just "time to sign off".
- Considering that Max and Riton have already secured their loot, nothing should be easier than gracefully slipping into retirement, right? Wrong. In standard noir fashion, Max's plans quickly begin to unravel when he is followed home one night by a pair of thugs. Max has no trouble handling these goons, but he grows understandably worried that the gangster Angelo (Lino Ventura) is out to get his loot. Although he warns Riton about a similar ambush, it isn't long before Max has to use the stolen loot to ransom his friend. He enlists some help and engages Angelo's gang in a brutal firefight that ultimately deprives Max of more than just his retirement.
- The primary success of Touchez Pas Au Grisbi lies in how well it handles the absolutely charming relationship between Max and Riton. Max spends much of their time together hurling playful insults at the mostly sheepish Riton, but it's obvious that the two of them are inseparable. When Riton gets kidnapped, Max delivers a lengthy internal monologue berating both Riton and himself for Riton's stupidity, but we know Max is going to go after him in the end. Although Max claims to strictly separate his business and personal lives ("I'm interested in serious business, not petting parties!"), it is ultimately his mixing of the two that causes him to go after Riton.
- As a footnote, I should comment that this film benefits greatly from not having to deal with the Hays code that would have censored an analogous American production. This makes Touchez Pas Au Grisbi a grittier film than was standard for its era, but Becker of course uses this to enhance rather than detract from the experience.
- This was Lino Ventura's first film.
