Dernier atout

Filmed during the German Occupation of France, Becker’s delightful “official” directorial debut owes a debt to the American gangster pictures that it was purposefully designed to take the place of, with Hollywood content having been banned by the Nazis. Opening with the sound of gunshots over our well-groomed hero calmly doing his crossword puzzles, Dernier atout seamlessly melds the frantic energies of a James Cagney pre-Code programmer to the subtler charms of French cinema, as it follows two police cadets dealing with a murderer, a beautiful femme fatale, and even a visiting Chicago gangster, memorably named Rudy Score.