Lino Ventura Movies

In the made-for-cable thriller Sword of Gideon, a team of anti-terrorist commandos, led by Steven Bauer, sets out to avenge the deaths of Israeli athletes killed during the Munich Olympics of 1972. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide

Aldo (Lino Ventura) is a worker in a Canadian goldmine who escapes being murdered by a gang of marauding bandits as they kill off everyone in the camp except Aldo and two Native American workers and then nab the gold stores. The three survivors manage to kill off the assassins and discuss dividing the gold between them, but Aldo soon catches on that the other two intend to keep the gold for themselves. Aldo practices a little one-up-manship, escapes with the two heavy cases of gold, and then when his canoe goes over some rapids he loses it all. Not one to give up easily, Aldo recruits a wheelchair-bound friend and the friend's wife to help him retrieve the golden treasure from the turbulent waters of the river. With the additional help of Aldo's love interest (Claudia Cardinale) and another friend, the group salvage the gold -- but then have to face some stalwart competition in the form of the two Native Americans who have returned looking for their share of the treasure and a third party who also wants in on the take. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

This screen version of Victor Hugo's classic novel stars Italian actor Lino Ventura as Jean Valjean, a French peasant who -- driven to desperation by poverty -- steals a loaf of bread only to be caught by the police. After serving a long prison term for this petty theft, Valjean is tempted to return to a life of crime upon his release, but an act of mercy by a kindly Bishop gives him a fresh start. Valjean gains a new determination to build a better life for himself, and in time he becomes a respected citizen, a successful businessman, and the mayor of a small town. However, Javert (Michel Bouquet), who was once a guard at the prison where Valjean was held, is now a police captain and knows the truth about the criminal history Valjean prefers not to discuss. Javert is convinced that Valjean is not as honest as he seems, and he obsessively pursues him, determined to one day put him back behind bars. This was the 16th screen adaptation of Les Miserables, and the 11th to be produced since the introduction of sound. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

This is a minimalist interrogation drama about a wealthy, influential attorney (Michel Serrault) in a small French town falls under suspicion in a double rape/murder case. The police bring the lawyer in for questioning; at first politely, and then less so, the interrogation team (Lino Venture, Guy Marchand) chips away at the suspect's alibi. An expertly wrought surprise ending makes up for the clumsiness of the English-language dubbing. This French film was based on the British novel Brainwash, by John Wainwright. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In truth, there are two French Detectives in this European crime melodrama. Lino Ventura plays an aging, been-around gumshoe, while Patrick Dewaere is his young, callow and cynical associate. The two detectives don't like each other much at first, but this will change. Their current assignment: getting the goods on a corrupt politician. Occasionally more violent than it needs to be, The French Detective has the twin advantages of authenticity and sincerity. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Proof of the success of French filmmaker Edouard Molinaro is the fact that several of his home-grown hits have been remade as American films. The most recent example of this is 1996's The Birdcage, a highly profitable reworking of Molinaro's La Cage aux Folles (1978). The director's 1973 comedy A Pain in the A... also went the Cage aux Folles route of enjoying worldwide popularity, then undergoing an Americanization process. In the Molinaro original, Lino Ventura plays a friendless hit man who holes up in an Italian hotel room, awaiting the opportunity to knock off his target, a mob witness. No sooner has Ventura drawn a bead on his would-be victim than he is interrupted by the comically suicidal Jacques Brel, who wants to jump from the open window in the assassin's room. The banter and byplay between Ventura and Brel is priceless, especially when veering towards the "sick" humor that Molinaro handles so well. Based on a play by Francis Veber, Pain in the A... was remade by Billy Wilder as Buddy Buddy (1978), with Walter Matthau as the hit man and Jack Lemmon as his unexpected guest. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This French spy thriller makes a number of surprising variations on familiar themes. Tibere (Lino Ventura) is a Soviet nuclear scientist who comes to London with a platoon of his colleagues for a conference. When he is injured in an auto accident, he gets separated from them. The accident was a set-up by British MI5 (secret service). It turns out that he is a Frenchman who was kidnapped by the Soviets many years before. The British insist on his returning to the West to helping the British and French spy agencies. They don't look after him any too well, however, and he ends up being chased by everybody under the sun, including the KGB. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In rural Arkansas, strippers are using a bikini bottom made of stolen jewels. Two brothers, one a moonshiner who also uses moonshine as a tannery chemical, and the other a less-countrified lad, try to outwit both the police and the original thieves and steal the bikini for themselves. As it is constantly in use, this is easier said than done. However, they get to hang out in the strip joint and talk to naked and nearly naked girls a lot. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In this war drama set during the French Resistance of WW II, a courageous fighter escapes Gestapo headquarters and returns to Marseille. There he and his gang capture a traitor and throttle him. They then try to rescue a Resistance fighter in Lyons. As they do so, the hero is again captured and his partner killed. Again the hero escapes just before he is executed. He then finds that a female partner has been captured. To avoid having her daughter forced to work in a Nazi brothel, the woman has informed upon the others. She is then released and subsequently killed by another Resistance fighter for revenge. The screenplay is based on Joseph Kessel's novel and became filmmaker Jean Pierre Melville's magnum opus. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this adventure, a hotshot pilot loses his license after he attempts to fly through the Arc de Triumph in Paris. Later he and his buddy head for the Congo accompanied by an unsuccessful female artist to locate a crashed plane supposedly filled with a fabulous treasure. Unfortunately, they are followed by greedy crooks who want the treasure for themselves. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A French secret agent Lino Ventura gets a license to kill when he is sent to Vienna to plug a security leak in this routine spy saga. He is caught in the crossfire of international enemy agents trying to eliminate the French. He dodges bullets fired by double-crossing double agents and a mysterious spy affiliated with either the Soviet Union or China. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Veteran gangster Gustave (Lino Ventura) escapes from prison to find his sister is being blackmailed by some petty thugs in this crime thriller. He plans one last caper to steal enough money in hopes of retiring to a tropical paradise. He and his gang are sought by a detective (Paul Meurisse), the cop who plays by the book and avoids the sadistic torture practiced by his less-honorable cohorts. Soon Gustave is caught between the police and the double-crossing gangsters and discovers too late that there is no honor among thieves. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide