Ça va Barder…

Such curiosity as this retains is centred on the director, a member of the Hollywood blacklist diaspora. This was his first credited work in Europe, a comedy thriller that features much slapstick along with the scuffling and chasing about expected of an Eddie Constantine vehicle. Although not a Lemmy Caution adventure, the film includes several piquant cross-references to Godard's subsequent Alphaville, notably Eddie's arrival in the imaginary Puerto Negro, his luggage consisting of two shirts, a .45 and an attitude of undeceived toughness. But the Constantine style - grinning wolfishly at the crooks before sorting them out and scowling at the dames, ditto - now seems very period. Berry directs himself in a rather masochistic role, getting roughed up by Eddie, dunked in the sea and finally machine gunned to pieces.