La loi des hommes

This is a strange film noir .After the attack of the armored van,nothing is really what a fan of the genre expects.It's a cat and mouse play between a cop (Philippe Leroy) and a bourgeoise (Micheline Presle) who may (or may not) be involved in the robbery .We will never know whether he harasses her because it's his duty or because he's deeply in love with her.Then begins a curious chase,where the woman always escapes with the help of weirdoes: a princess (played by a cast against type Arletty:one of her last parts,her last year in the movies ;Arletty's inimitable accent is almost absent here),a German blacksmith who was a hero (or maybe was not at all)during WW2,then a priest whom the heroine confesses to.That may be the meaning of the title (the law of man ) cause God,the priest says,has got nothing to do with man's law.