As we were watching it, we kept saying, "Wow, this really feels like that film that starts with the criminal and cop chained together in the train, and then there's this newly released ex con. . ." (Le Cercle Rouge), and of course it does, since they're the same director.

They feel much more like each other than either feels like the third film I've seen by Melville, Army of Shadows (L' Armée des ombres, 1969). They're very personal, very abstracted and very concentrate takes on familiar genres: noir, heist.

I found myself unaccountably concerned about Alain Delon's small bird and thought his apartment looked wonderfully Vermeer-ish.

I really need to write about This Gun for Hire (1942).