Rififi

Rififi French Du rififi chez les hommes a is a 1955 French crime film adaptation of Auguste Le Bretons novel of the same name. Directed by American blacklisted filmmaker Jules Dassin, the film stars Jean Servais as the aging gangster Tony le Stphanois, Carl Mhner as Jo le Sudois, Robert Manuel as Mario Farrati, and Jules Dassin as Csar le Milanais. The foursome band together to commit an almost impossible theft, the burglary of an exclusive jewelry shop on the Rue de Rivoli. The centerpiece of the film is an intricate half hour heist scene depicting the crime in detail, shot in near silence, without dialogue or music. The fictional burglary has been mimicked by criminals in actual crimes around the world.

Tony le Stphanois has served a fiveyear prison term for a jewel heist and is out on the street and down on his luck. His friend Jo approaches him about a smashandgrab proposed by mutual friend Mario in which the threesome would cut the glass on a Parisian jewelers front window in broad daylight and snatch some gems. Tony declines. He then learns that his old girlfriend, Mado, took up in his absence with gangster Parisian nightclub owner Pierre Grutter. Finding Mado working at Grutters, Tony invites her back to his rundown flat. She is obviously wellkept, and Tony savagely beats her for being so deeply involved with Grutter. Tony changes his mind about the heist he now accepts on the condition that they rob the jewelers safe instead of the window. Mario suggests they employ the services of Italian compatriot Csar, a safecracker. The four devise and rehearse an ingenious plan to break into the store and disarm its sophisticated alarm system.The caper begins with the group chiseling through a cement ceiling from an upstairs flat on a Sunday night. The suspenseful breakin completed, the criminals appear to escape without leaving any trace of their identities. However, without the others knowledge, Csar pocketed a diamond ring as a bauble for his lover Viviane, a chanteuse at Grutters club. The four men arrange to fence the loot with a London contact. Meanwhile, Grutter has seen Mado and her injuries, who breaks off their relationship. Infuriated at Tonys interference in his life, he gives heroin to his drugaddicted brother Remi and tells him to murder Tony. Grutter sees the diamond Csar gave to Viviane and realizes that Csar, Mario, and Tony were responsible for the jewel theft. Grutter forces Csar to confess. Forsaking amillion franc police reward, Grutter decides to steal the jewels from Tonys gang, his brother Remi brutally murdering Mario and his wife Ida when they refuse to reveal where the loot is hidden. Tony retrieves it from the couples apartment and anony

Source: Wikipedia