The Outside Man (1973)

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

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

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

I have always loved this film since I discovered it, back in 1981. We don't see such features anymore. I would have never guessed to watch Michel Constantin and Ted De Corsia - the two best heavies for their own movie industry - together in the same film. And nearly in the same sequence. I will also say that Roy Scheider plays here a role, a character which reminds me the one the had in MARATHON MAN, WAGES OF FEAR, L'ATTENTAT, roles where he is not the lead but a character who is important and who also dies before the end.

Very dull hit-man 70's film that is partly inept and slow-going. Jean-Louis Trintignant is a monotonous, wooden hit-man who gets double crossed. He's followed by Roy Scheider, who can't seem to shoot straight. The only reason to sit through this dull film is Ann Margaret, who is super hot in a white wig, looking like Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield. Angie Dickinson isn't bad either.Also it's nice to see Downtown Los Angeles and Venice Beach in their 70's decrepitude (A Venice Beach Amusement Pier in decay, the old, one-level LAX airport, Beverly Wilshire Hotel, skid row, Tower Records on Sunset). Story is lacking, so is the action, but look out for an assortment of TV and film characters from the era ((Jackie Earle Haley, Alex Rocco, Talia Shire as a make-up girl, John Hillerman, etc.).

A fast paced thriller directed by Jacques Deray and starring Jean-Louis Trintignant as a French hit-man who goes to Los Angeles to kill a mob boss only to find himself pursued relentlessly by American hit-man Roy Scheider. With its European sensibility and LA locations, THE OUTSIDE MAN is something of an oddity. Trintignant is excellent --- nobody played an outsider better than him in the '70s. Scheider scowls and grits his teeth a lot. A barely dressed Ann-Margret is the bad girl who helps Trintignant out. The supporting cast is truly bizarre --- Georgia Engel is an uncooperative, publicity happy housewife, Angie Dickinson plays the mob boss's wife but has so few lines, it's a wonder why she was cast. Alex Rocco, Jackie Earle Haley and John Hillerman also have small roles.

Bizarre mixture of elements: character study, romance, crime melodrama and action flick. Terrifically filmed on vivid Los Angeles locales by a French director and crew, story follows foreign hit-man on assignment in L.A. being tracked down and targeted for death. Some of the characters here are delicious: Jean-Louis Trintigant is super-cool as the French gunman, Roy Scheider is his nemesis, Ann-Margret sad and desperate as a former flame of Trintigant's boss, Angie Dickinson as the cheating wife of a Bel Air crime czar, Georgia Engel as an innocent housewife who manages to get involved. Subtle--some may say somnambulant--thriller, less frenetic than most American pictures in the crime genre, with emphasis on character detail and emotion. Unusual and worth-watching. **1/2 from ****