By all accounts Auguste le Breton led a very colourful life. His novels depicting the Parisian underworld were based upon personal knowledge and possess an authenticity which made them eminently suitable for film.
Jules Dassin's 'Rififi chez des hommes' of 1955 is an undisputed masterpiece of the genre but three subsequent attempts to capitalise on the 'Rififi' name have proved pretty dismal, the last of which is this one.
Breton's style happened to suit the 'mature' Gabin but of the four Breton adaptations in which he starred this is undoubtedly the worst.
Gabin is going through the motions here as a well-groomed, well-tailored low life whose international smuggling operation is threatened by an equally well-groomed, well-tailored low life played by George Raft doing his customary impression of a plank. The script calls upon Raft at one stage to flip a coin which is what he does best. Claudio Brook plays a US Treasury agent which is a far cry from his 'Simon of the Desert' for Bunuel. Gert Froebe makes the best of it and Najda Tiller who had previously appeared in 'Rififi chez des femmes' has a crummy role.
This travelogue takes us from Paris to London and Tokyo to the accompaniment of a terminally irritating score by Georges Garvarentz in a film aimed at the lowest common denominator.
In his previous film, also directed by Denys de la Patilliere, Gabin had given a standout performance as a misanthropic alcoholic but his compulsion to work alas led to more misses than hits in his later years. This does not seem to matter for as Michael Caine once observed: "People only remember the good ones". Just as well!
Review of The Upper Hand
