Must See French Film - Bob le Flambeur

Bob le flambeur ("Bob the Gambler" or "Bob the High Roller") is a 1956 French gangster film directed by style and is considered a precursor to the Jean-Pierre Melville. The film stars Roger Duchesne as Bob. It is filmed in a film noirFrench New Wave movement.

Bob, a middle-aged gambler and thief living in the Montmartre district of Paris, experiences a run of bad luck that leaves him nearly broke. Bob is a gentleman with scruples, well-liked in the demi-monde community. He has unsuccessfully tried to rob a bank in the past, and has spent time in prison.

He hears through a croupier friend that the Deauville Casino holds undreamed-of quantities of cash, vulnerable in the early morning hours. Bob develops a complicated scheme to steal it, bringing in a tough but naive young protege and an ace safecracker into his scheme, along with a few other underworld characters.

Bob also becomes involved with a young woman, Anne, who does not have her own place and stays with any man who can take her off the streets. Later, Anne begins spending time with Bob's friend and partner-in-crime, Paolo.

Meanwhile, Inspector Ledru of the local police, whom Bob once saved from death, gets a hint that Bob is involved in something big - but the snitch is gunned down just as he is about to confirm the specifics. Paolo trusts Anne and tells her the plot in which he is involved with Bob. However, in the evening of the planned heist, Anne betrays the gang to Ledru without realizing that it was supposed to be a secret. Ledru searches Bob's Montmartre haunts to warn him off the plan - in vain. At the casino, Bob gambles while nominally casing the scene. A phenomenal winning streak ensues that lasts all night. This is the dance with Lady Luck he has waited for all his life. While gambling, he forgets all about the plan, rejoicing in his winnings. Suddenly, Bob is startled to realize it is the appointed hour of 5:00 AM, hurriedly cashes in his immense cache of chips, and exits the casino floor. Just as his gang arrives, Ledru and the police descend, and the shooting starts. Bob rushes out of the casino in time to cradle his dying protege, Paolo, for a brief moment, then is handcuffed and arrested as casino employees trundle out his pile of cash winnings. His cash is loaded into the boot of Inspector Ledru's car.

It is strongly implied that his lucky streak will hold, and he will get off with little or no jail time, perhaps even suing the police for damages--while the beautiful Anne, no longer off-limits to Bob because of his friendship with Paolo, waits for him at his apartment.