Number 208 on IMDb's Top 250
Tony le Stephanois has just been released from prison. His friends Jo le Suedois and Mario Ferrati proposition him with the daylight robbery of a jewellery store. Tony declines the offer but following an encounter with his ex-girlfriend, Mado, he reconsiders but decides they should break in and take the entire contents of the safe instead. They enlist the help of Cesar le Milanais. The heist is executed perfectly by the men, with one exception; Cesar takes a ring to give to a singer. Pierre, the singer's boss connects the group to the robbery and goes after them for the jewels. Cesar tells Pierre where Mario lives but Mario refuses to tell Pierre where the jewels are so Pierre kills him then kidnaps Jo's son Tonio. Tony kills Cesar for his betrayal then goes to find Tonio. Jo, against Tony's advice, takes the money the group received for selling the jewels to exchange for Tonio. Tony has already gotten Tonio back from Pierre. Pierre kills Jo and Tony kills Pierre but only after being fatally wounded. It is then a race against time for Tony to return Tonio to his mother before he dies. Hilarity ensues.
Trivia: Mexican authorities pulled the movie from theaters after multiple burglaries were committed employing methods similar to those shown. The argot French slang word, "Rififi" is defined loosely as trouble/violent conflict/a brutal show of force, usually in reference to chest puffing and macho tough guy posturing by thugs and criminal element of Paris. The much imitated heist sequence is over 32 minutes long and contains not a single line of dialogue or music. The production crew and composer Georges Auric thought it would be a disaster to have such a long sequence sans dialogue. Auric insisted that he allow him to write a grand piece of music for the scene and he eventually did on his own. Later Jules Dassin, the director, played the part for Auric twice, once with the score, once without. Auric turned to him and admitted, "Without the music". Dassin claims his reasoning for the lengthy silence was realism. He explains that this also reinforces their astonishing teamwork under stress and that these men can, and carry these tasks out with no need for words. They work in a state of complete silence where any sound (like Jo bumping the piano) was their mortal enemy. Note that Cesar wears ballet slippers during the heist.
Okay, everybody got it? It is a rather convoluted plot and a little hard to follow. The jewel of the film was the heist itself and the famed 32 minutes of silence. It happened in the middle of the film. What was amazing was that the few times that there is a sound, like bumping the piano, that sounds is jarring and you cringe a little. Good film.
Next Up: Wings of Desire, A German film with Peter Falk as himself (who only talks in English). If any of you saw City of Angels, with Nicolas Cage and Meg Ryan, you know the basic plot, although there are plenty of differences.
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