User reviews

(the new barker to the acrobat)

-Can I have a trailer door key?

-What for?There's nothing to steal in here!

The new barker is actually a gangster who has double-crossed his accomplices and has hidden a part of loot in the trailer.He has taken refuge in a seedy circus where a gypsy is spying on him.Besides his angry ex-pals are not far either.

Raymond Pellegrin and a young Jeanne Moreau team up again after Henri Decoin's "Les Intrigantes" (1954).They get good support from a very good cast which includes Mouloudji,Paul Meurisse (many people saw him in "les Diaboliques"),Howard Vernon and Jacques Dufilho.Michel Audiard, as usual,provides the movie with fine lines and Pierre Billon's directing is effective.A true film noir with lots of dead bodies .

Mijanou Bardot,Brigitte's sister, plays the circus owner's daughter.

Fairly diverting minor French crime drama featuring young Jeanne Moreau and Paul Meurisse. The setting lends the film some interest, a seedy traveling circus. A convict just let out of prison heads there to hide out from his old crime partners who think he has their money. Various alliances form and some excitement is generated, but nothing about it is really memorable, unless you count the silent boy and his dog who witness a lot of the action on the circus grounds. It's easy to see why the films of Becker, Melville and a few others stand out in the same period. Meurisse in fact, did impressive work with Melville later on, while Moreau was on the verge of international stardom.