The devil in the white vest

Movie
German title	The devil in the white vest
Original title	Le Doulos
Country of production	France , Italy
original language	French
Publishing year	1962
length	108 minutes
Age rating	FSK 12
Rod
Director	Jean-Pierre Melville
script	Jean-Pierre Melville, ; Pierre Lesou
production	Georges de Beauregard , ; Carlo Ponti
music	Paul Misraki
camera	Nicolas Hayer
cut	Monique Bonnot
occupation
	Jean-Paul Belmondo : Silien; Serge Reggiani : Maurice Faugel; Daniel Crohem : Inspector Salignari; Jean Desailly : Commissioner Clain; René Lefèvre : Gilbert Varnove, the fence; Philippe March : Jean; Fabienne Dali : Fabienne; Carl Studer : Core; Paulette Breil : Anita; Philippe Nahon : Rémy; Michel Piccoli : Nuttheccio;
synchronization

The devil in the white vest (original title: Le Doulos ) is a French - Italian crime film from 1962 . It is a film adaptation of the novel Le Doulos by Pierre Lesou . The script was written by Jean-Pierre Melville , who also directed . Jean-Paul Belmondo and Serge Reggiani can be seen in the leading roles .

action

The gangster Maurice Faugel has served a long prison sentence. After his release he has new criminal plans. He shoots and robbed a fence who murdered a friend of his. While he and his friend Rémy are raiding a villa in Neuilly in order to break into the safe there, Silien beats Faugel's friend Thérèse out of the villa's address. During the break-in, Faugel and Rémy are surprised by the police. Both are shot by Inspector Salignari. Rémy does not survive, but Faugel shoots Salignari and then collapses. He comes to in the house of his friend Jean's wife.

Who was the police informer? Faugel thinks it was Silien: he called him a friend, but this Silien doesn't seem to have a good reputation in gangster circles. And the viewer must also think so at this point in the film: It is not just the scene when he appears in Thérèse that suggests it; When Faugel and Rémy were already on their way, Silien had called Inspector Salignari.

And then it is Silien who is arrested and unsuccessfully interrogated, but finally helps inspector Clain to track down and arrest Faugel in a bar. Faugel ends up in a prison cell again. There he orders Kern, whom he meets in the cell, to murder Silien.

In fact, Faugel's friend Thérèse was the police informer. Silien knows this, who kills her together with Jean and blames the murder of the fence for two other gangsters, whom he also kills, in order to get Faugel out of prison.

After Faugel has learned the whole thing, he tries to stop Kern. He is shot by him in Silien's house. Silien, who finds the dying Faugel, can shoot Kern, but is also fatally hit by him.

background

The Devil in the White Vest was released in theaters in Italy on December 13, 1962 and in France on February 8, 1963 . The film was shown in Germany from September 20, 1963. When first television broadcast in the ARD on May 4, 1968, a shortened version of the film 12 minutes, the time of the FSK was released over 18 years, is shown. The unabridged version was only shown on ZDF in 1993 , with the subsequently reinserted passages being given German subtitles .

As part of the video publication in 2007, The Devil with the White Vest was approved by the FSK for ages 12 and up.

Attendance: around 1,480,000 (in France)
In French, Le Doulos stands for a hat, but also for a police informant.

The German director Volker Schlöndorff acted as first assistant director and plays an extra role in the film.

The French director Elisabeth Rappeneau worked as a script girl

effect

As a tribute to this film, Olivier Marchal used the name Silien for a police informant in his 2004 film 36 Deadly Rivals . Quentin Tarantino named the script for Le Doulos as his favorite script , which had a great influence on his film Reservoir Dogs .

synchronization

The devil with the white vest was dubbed by Munich-based Beta Technik Film GmbH . The dialogue book wrote KE Ludwig , the dialogue director led Wolfgang Schick .

actor	German speaker	role
Jean-Paul Belmondo	Peer Schmidt	Silien
Serge Reggiani	Herbert Stass	Maurice Faugel
Michel Piccoli	KE Ludwig	Nuttheccio
Philippe Nahon	Rolf Castell	Remy

reception

source	rating
Rotten tomatoes
critic
audience
IMDb

The film received almost exclusively positive reviews and achieved a rating of 96% on Rotten Tomatoes , based on 28 reviews and 91% from the audience with around 2,600 votes. At IMDb , the film received 7.8 out of a possible 10 stars with around 8,100 votes. (As of December 4, 2019)

"Precisely calculated, supercooled staged gangster melodrama with an initially sober, later melodramatic tone that transfers the fatal consequences of ancient tragedies to the Parisian underworld."

- Lexicon of international film