I know it's hard to keep track of the endless mumber of movies Jess Franco carriedout during his 4 decades career ...sometimes 3 o 4 at a time , but if someone asks me to list only three among his more remarkable this would be one of those that would made the cut.
Don't think for a second this is up to the Rififi's standards , Jess probably thought that could get some extra publicity by having Jean Servais so tried to sell this as a kind of Rififi follow up , but sadly all similarities ended up in the title .
As a film noir it turns out to be quite weak at some points but it's also true that , as it happens with most of Jess' flicks , Rififi en la ciudad has its charms . Apparently action is located in an undetermined South American country but actually Jess filmed all the action in the south of in Spain and even with a restricted budget ambiance are well crafted and manages to give us the atmosphere Jess intended . Plot itself it's not a wonder, classical search for a killer mixed up with some revenge touches but is enough to keep you interested throughout the film . Main assets here is that Jess is not trying to do here his usual mix of sexplotation ,vampires ,lesbanism . He steps in a different ground and provided the level of the Spanish cinema in the late 50's I would say that he accomplished a fine impersonation of the Dassin and Melville works and ambiance's.
Don't think for a second this is up to the Rififi's standards , Jess probably thought that could get some extra publicity by having Jean Servais so tried to sell this as a kind of Rififi follow up , but sadly all similarities ended up in the title .
As a film noir it turns out to be quite weak at some points but it's also true that , as it happens with most of Jess' flicks , Rififi en la ciudad has its charms . Apparently action is located in an undetermined South American country but actually Jess filmed all the action in the south of in Spain and even with a restricted budget ambiance are well crafted and manages to give us the atmosphere Jess intended . Plot itself it's not a wonder, classical search for a killer mixed up with some revenge touches but is enough to keep you interested throughout the film . Main assets here is that Jess is not trying to do here his usual mix of sexplotation ,vampires ,lesbanism . He steps in a different ground and provided the level of the Spanish cinema in the late 50's I would say that he accomplished a fine impersonation of the Dassin and Melville works and ambiance's.