Le dos au mur aka Back to the Wall (1958) Classic French Noir

Directed by Édouard Molinaro (The Road To Shame, A Witness In The City, La Cage aux Folles). 

Written by Frédéric Dard, François Chavane, Jean Redon with additional dialogue by Jean-Louis Roncoroni, and based on a story by Frédéric Dard. Dard by the way, was the best-selling French-language author in the world during his lifetime and was best known for his raunchy humor and his inventive use of French slang. 

Cinematography was by Robert Lefebvre (Voyage sans espoir, Casque d'Or, Espions à l'affût ), Music by Richard Cornu. 

The film Stars Jeanne Moreau as Gloria Decrey, Gérard Oury as Jacques Decrey, Philippe Nicaud as Yves Normand, Claire Maurier as bar owner Ghislaine, Yves's ex-mistress. Jean Lefebvre as Mauvin, a private detective hired by Decrey. 

Jeanne Moreau as Gloria Decrey

Gérard Oury as Jacques Decrey

Philippe Nicaud as Yves Normand

Claire Maurier as bar owner Ghislaine

Jean Lefebvre as Mauvin

With Micheline Luccioni as The postmistress, Jean Michaud as The minister, Albert Michel as The concierge of Yves's building, Colette Renard as Josiane Mauvin, the private detective's adulterous wife, René Berthier as The priest, Robert Le Béal as Maître Lombard, the lawyer, Gérard Buhr: Mario, Jean-Marie Rivière as the second Corsican, Pascal Mazzotti as Jérôme, the Decreys' servant. 

Story 

Nighttime. We see a man, Jacques Decrey, leave a large mansion. He gets into his 1950 Buick Super. This sled has got a big toothy chrome grille and portholes along the hood. He drives over to the apartment of Yves Normand. 

We only hear the sounds of the car traveling down the road. During this drive through the streets of Paris, we get our title sequence.  

Jacques parks. Gets out of the Buick. Slips on his gloves.

He walks to the apartment house's doorway. A pedestrian walks by on the sidewalk Jacques slinks into the shadows. He enters the apartment house and climbs up the stairs. 

He goes to the door of Yves Normand's apartment. The door is open. We watch him go in the apartment is dark. He flicks on his lighter to see. 

We cut to the downstairs hallway. The concierge calls out who is there. At the same time a couple comes in through the door. They greet each other in passing.

At the outside door the concierge complains that "they" never shut it. We cut back to the apartment. We see Yves dead face down on the floor. 

In the bathroom his electric razor is draped over the sink and still buzzing. Jacques unplugs it and gets to work. 

He wraps the cord around the razon and puts it into an open suitcase. He continues to pack it with the clothes laid out on the bed. He also straightens out the sheets and remakes the bed.

The phone starts ringing, he doesn't answer it. In a desk draw he finds a stack of franks he puts the money in his trench coat. 

We cut to Yves' body, now being rolled up in a rug. Jacques uses Yves's neckties to secure the rug around Yves's neck and feet. 

Jacques drags the body to the apartment door and drops it. He gets the packed suitcase and carries it down to the outside door and leaves it there, going back up for the body. 

When he's back down at the main doorway he has to wait. A couple of lovers are standing by the Buick embracing. He has to wait until they move off.

With Yves' body over his shoulder and the suitcase in one hand, he walks back to the rear of the Buick, puts the suitcase down, and unlocks the trunk. He places the body in the trunk, and then the suitcase. He drives off. 

With Yves' body over his shoulder and the suitcase in one hand, he walks back to the rear of the Buick, puts the suitcase down, and unlocks the trunk. He places the body in the trunk, and then the suitcase. He drives off. 

At an electrical industrial equipment manufacture building Jacques stops the car, gets out and unlocks and opens the delivery entrance. The watchman who comes to investigate see's that its Jacques Decrey the boss, and waves him through.

Jacques drives over to where a new half finished wall is being built between two of his shop buildings. He parks. He climbs a ladder to the top of a concrete form and sees a spot between the iron rebar that will work perfectly.  

He grabs a hook attached to a winch and pulls it down as he descends the ladder.

We next see him cranking the rug with Yves' body to the top of the form. Cut to Jacques mixing concrete, then shoveling it into a bucket and winching the bucket to the top of the form. He's burying Yves in the wall. When he's finally done Jacques gets back in the Buick and drives off.

This is roughly the 12-15 minute point in the film and aside from the concierge speaking with the tenants, the film has been just ambient noise. 

Now, back in the Buick, Jacques starts a V.O. telling us that the hard part is now over, and as he begins to tell us how he got to this point, we go into a flashback.

It all started, he tells us when he returned a day early from a weekend hunting trip. 

He pulls into his garage and as he is about to come around the wall corner to the main gate entrance, his wife Gloria and apparently her lover Yve's, drive up in a 1954 MG TF, to the main gate. 

Jacques listens to them talk and watches as they kiss. 

When Yves drives off, Jacques runs back to the Buick, pulls out of the garage and follows him back to his apartment house. 

Yves parks, hops out and goes into the apartment house. Jacques pulls to a stop and follows but the door is closed and locked. He walks over to the MG and see's the owners name Yves Normand.

So instead of confronting Yves on the spot Jacques begins an elaborate revenge plot against Gloria and Yves. Of course it all goes Noirsville.

Noirsville

1950 Buick Super

A very good Noir from Édouard Molinaro with some unexpected twists. The cast is great, the story good, the cinematography excellent and the music jazzy. 8/10