Any Number Can Win (1963)

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

For a part of public, the actors are the lead motif to see it. for other, the plot, reminding Ocean Eleven. a French Heist movie, good performance of Delon, same Gabin in inspired use of the nuances of character and the perfect end. nothing new at first sigh. in fact, the old flavors are the lead motif for see a film about a hold -up, its levels and portraits of men inside it.

It's so refreshing to sit back, relax, and enjoy a slow simmering casino robbery caper. No dizzy editing, no mindless car chases, no wiz kid gadgets, no convoluted but inexplicable plots. Just an old hand released after serving 5 years, coming home to his wife and vowing that he will pull off a big one and live happily ever after. Never hurried, things get better and better. The year is 1963 and the venue, the French Riviera, as a matter of fact, Cannes. Better still, it's in black and white.Here we have young Alain Delon's explosive appearance that makes him look like James Dean for a few minutes, before he resumes the persona we know him so well by, cool and stylish. At the ending (and what an ending), we even see him in a little bit of a pensive mood. It is, however, old timer Jean Gabin who gives you every dollar's worth, portraying the old master, sturdy as a rock and clever as a fox, as Spencer Tracy might have played it.Following the caper through from the meticulous storytelling, we become so empathized with the principals that we are finally prepared for the ending. The situation is so devilishly set up that every tingle of tension in the air become palpable. Use of the camera is now swung to high gear, from the shot of Delon appearing at a distance through a circular archway with a bulky bag in each hand, to the frame with Gabin sitting at the near side of the swimming pool and Delon over at the far side, at an angle. You can hear the thundering silence as they exchange non-existent glances. The last twenty minutes in this movie would be the most memorable last twenty minutes in any movie that you have come across.

I don't know why this movie is so little-celebrated -- it's terrific. It's so assured. It brings in the worn and smooth Jean Gabin for his last job (of course), and through some exchanges of witty banter gives us some time to get to know him and his wife before introducing his former cellmate, Alain Delon, as the leather-jacketed toughie. They're both excellent here, especially Gabin, who's polite but still certainly in control. He gives a wryness, like a fat Orson Welles, to his performance. The hot-tempered Delon gives a jolt of vitality to the picture. The entire movie is nice and slow, perfectly glamorous, the best of swinging, jazzy '60s cool. In a conventional movie, when Delon is told to seduce a ballerina so he and Gabin can gain a backstage pass to the theater, the courting would have ended with him buying her a drink. But in this film, it lasts for a good half an hour. And it's never boring. Those nice, long sequences explain everything fully. Not the plot, per se, but elements of the plot -- Delon's seducing of the dancer (which he mucks up more than once); Delon's brother-in-law, who in a normal movie would have been nothing but a side character, here is fully-fleshed out; Gabin's wife. And that long, languorous rhythm is what makes the major, lengthy set piece so memorable -- it's where Delon slinks around, slipping up occasionally, climbing up stairs, crawling through a ventilation shaft, and hiding in an elevator (very "Mission: Impossible"), eventually leading to the robbery. And it has one of the best endings to any caper movie that I've seen. 9/10

This film deserves more credit than it gets. All the actors are top notch (Jean Gabin as the ageing theif, Alain Delon as the playboy) and the story is very well crafted and has all the great tough guy dialogue of great caper's like RIFIFI, BOB LE FLAMBEUR etc however the overall tone of the film is a bit lighter and not as serious as those films. the heist itself is pretty short and sweet but this movie is more about the planning and the aftermath.Another great thing about this picture is that even though it's black and white, it's still widescreen adding a nice touch to the look of the film. The only drawback to the DVD is that the picture is quite soft and blurry but for a film of this age and obscurity beggars can't be choosers! Another must see for heist fans (like me!)