Lino Ventura Movies

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

Le Rapace(Lino Ventura) is a suave soldier of fortune with a mysterious, unknown past. A group of South American revolutionaries hire him to kill a tyrannical leader. When he is caught in the middle of rival factions, he foregoes his financial reward and saves the mistress of the supposedly doomed tyrant. He finds his employers are just as vicious as the man he is sent to kill, and he turns his gun on the ones who planned the assassination, saving the life of Migel (Xavier Marc), who remains the logical choice to take over the country in the wake of massive political upheaval. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Jean-Claude Roland and Lino Ventura play Nick and Laurent, a pair of not completely rehabilitated ex-convicts in Les Grandes Gueules. The twosome is hired by Hector (Bourvil), a well-meaning, unworldly sawmill owner. At first refusing to take their lumberjacking jobs seriously, the larcenous parolees gradually realize that a whole new life has been offered them by the ingenuous owner. A pleasant, leisurely comedy-drama, Les Grandes Gueules might have been more effective with a quarter hour or so whittled out of its 130-minute running time. The film's English-language title is Jailbirds' Vacation. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Louis De Funes stars in this two-part sexploitation comedy. Pleasure-seekers deal with the official closing of French bordellos after the passing of the 1949 legislation outlawing the houses of ill repute. Part two finds a former prostitute who is besieged by former associates after she pulls off a successful robbery attempt. The final segment has a wealthy but sanctimonious patron offering a joy girl a place to stay. His house becomes a popular meeting place when his friends and the prostitute's friends get together for fun and games. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

It is only with some reluctance that big-time hood Alphonse (Lino Ventura) allows himself to be persuaded that a major painting-theft planned by some formerly small-time gangsters is a good idea. He gives the idea his backing and support and winds up holding the bag for the crime as the others escape. On emerging from prison, he wreaks havoc on his betrayers, until a pretty girl stops him in his tracks. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

El Tempranillo (Francisco Rabal) returns from the Napoleonic wars with a desire to continue fighting. He turns to banditry rather than live in poverty in his native Spain. Though his wife (Lea Massari) pleads for him to change his dangerous way of life, he refuses. When she is killed, the bandit sets out for revenge. He soon meets Pedro Sanchez (Phillipe Leroy), an escaped convict who was imprisoned for his political activities. The two continue on together until El Tempranillo is offered a pardon and an estate from the king. Basing the lead character on a legendary Spanish bandit, Carlos Saura co-wrote and directed this drama early in his career. Filmed on location in Spain's Sierra Morena. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide

This crime comedy finds ex-gangster Fernand (Lino Ventura) receiving a call from a dying friend, a mob boss nicknamed "The Mexican" (Jacques Dumesnil). The doomed mobster talks Fernand into taking care of some criminal business and looking after his soon-to-be-married daughter (Sabine Sinjen). When a longtime mobster heavy, Volfoni (Bernard Blier) takes exception to Fernand for being an outsider, they come after Fernand who is equal to the task. He defends himself in a series of comical killings from the onslaught of the mob. Writer Albert Simonin adapted this comedy from his book Grisby or Not Grisby, with sharp dialogue written by Michel Audiard. Both Simonin and Audiard would later work on director Georges Lautner's Les Barbouzes/The Great Spy Chase which, along with Les Tontons Flingueurs, would again feature actors Francis Blanche, Lino Ventura and Bernard Blier. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide

Various genres -- social satire, comedy, and romance -- come together in this routine tale by Denis de la Patellière about a family and greed. The well-heeled family gets its fortune from the canning of fish, and all its members are thrown into disarray when a long-lost brother comes back home. They would rather he stay lost, and now to get even with them, the terminally ill prodigal son deeds over his share of the company to his illegitimate son, Emile (Lino Ventura). Emile is a little rough around the edges and lives on a boat with a dubious-looking girlfriend -- just the type the family despises. At the same time, no one in the family considers whether or not Emile feels the same about them. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Hampered by over-orchestrated music, smeary color photography and (in the English version at least) poor dubbing, this 1963 French/German adaptation of the Kurt Weill-Bertolt Brecht piece The Three Penny Opera nonetheless has its attractions. Not least of these is the central performance of Curt Jurgens as robber captain MacHeath, whose romance with Polly Peachum (June Ritchie), daughter of beggar king J. J. Peachum (Gert Frobe), puts his life in jeopardy. Hildegarde Neff has an effective cameo as whore-ish Pirate Jenny. For the film's American release, distributor Joseph E. Levine hired Sammy Davis Jr. to play the Ballad Singer, who narrates the story, introduces the scenes, and sings the opera's most famous song "Moritat (The Ballad of Mack the Knife)." Unlike the music in the rest of the film, Davis' rendition of "Mack the Knife" is rearranged in Bobby Darin "pop" fashion. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

An episodic, funny, though uneven spoof of human manners and foibles, this comedy by Vittorio de Sica begins in Naples when a disembodied voice announces to the city's residents "The Last Judgment will begin at 6:00 p.m." Naturally, not all are immediately willing to accept this statement -- but not for long. As comic vignettes unfold, the good citizens soon become even better as they try to undo past and present sins, just in case. There is a long list of top actors that show up briefly in the story, everyone from Alberto Sordi to Jimmy Durante, Melina Mercouri, Anouk Aimée, Vittorio Gassmann, and many, many others. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

A criminal on the run finds going home after a decade is harder than he expects in this drama from French filmmaker Claude Sautet. Gangster Abel Davos (Lino Ventura) is wanted for murder in France, and has been living underground in Italy for ten years. Since then, Abel has married Therese (Simone France) and fathered two sons, and he's decided it's time to come home. Abel has planed an elaborate scheme in which he'll steal a fortune to finance his journey and head home with Therese and the boys, but little goes as planned, and he arrives in Paris without his wife and running from the law with two kids in tow. An underworld boss who owes Abel some favors helps him put together a plan to travel across France in an ambulance to avoid suspicion, and recruits a headstrong young gangster, Eric (Jean-Paul Belmondo), to serve as Abel's driver and right-hand-man. En route, Abel tries to settle some old score with criminal associates who betrayed him. Based on a novel by Jose Giovanni, Classe Tous Risques was the first feature film from Sautet, who previously had worked as an assistant director for some of France's most prestigious filmmakers. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide