1955 - RIFIFI aka Du rififi chez les hommes

A team of crooks get together to plan the robbery of a jewelry shop.  With careful planning they pull off the robbery in a still pretty exciting extended heist sequence.  After the robbery things start to fall apart for the gang.  So goes the story of Rififi.

American director  Jules Dassin blacklisted from Hollywood during the Communist Red Scares of the 1950's signed on.  Working with a very tight budget, he managed to pull off a classic crime film.  The film has a lot of on location scenes in the dead of winter in France which gives it a real documentary feel at times.  

 

The actors picked were not exactly at the top of the heap when the film was cast,  but they helped to lend a certain authenticity to the story.

An excellent film, written by Jules Dassin, Auguste Le Breton and Rene Wheeler.  The running time is 115 minutes.

1964 - TOPKAPI, Jules Dassin remakes RifIfi calls it TOPKAPI.

Topaki, is Dassin's remake of Rififi which was the first of the big heist caper films, in which a team of professional criminals plan and execute an elaborate robbery only to have it go wrong due to some unforeseen circumstance.

 

Rififi was a very influential crime film that looks a little dated today, however films like the Ocean's 11 series and every big caper film ever made were heavily influenced by this film. Dassin himself decided to remake Rififi as Topkapi, with the heist set in Turkey.  Dassin also went for a much lighter touch this time, he was smart enough to know that this wasn't to be taken very seriously.

   

Dassin also decided to cast his wife, Melina Mercouri a very very Greek actress, as the femme fatale, and she brings a very very Medea like intensity to what probably needed somewhat of a lighter touch. I will say however that she definitely has a personality.

The big heist scene at the end of the film is very well done, and the on location photography in Turkey and Greece with the cast running around on the rooftop of the Topkapi palace in Istanbul is pretty cool. This is the kind of film that the Ocean's 11 films couldn't begin to replicate much less surpass, and it's certainly more entertaining than that junk.

 119 minutes.