I’ve heard of this movie a few times int eh past, but finally happened to read about it as i was thinking about ordering up Eastern Promises, which I’ve yet to see.  It’s a 1967 film by French directorJean-Pierre Melville, and it’s arguably the inspiration for most of the assassin-on-the run movies of the past 40 years.  You can see elements of teh storyline in movies such as the Bourne series and The American, as well as Ronin and Collateral.

It follows a 48 hour period in which Jef Costello, a dapper, laconic, and very capable hit man commits a murder of a club owner (and we can assume crime figure), only to be spotted by the lounge piano player and a few other patrons.  He is arrested in a sweep of the usual suspects and the police superintendent homes in on his right away, despite a well-planned alibi and the pianist refusing to identify him.

Released, his employers — worried about his arrest and the police interest — try to kill him.  Costello spends the rest of the movie trying to lose the police tails he has, and stay alive long enough to find his double-crossing employer.

There’s tropes from this movie that get tapped for crime movies that followed it:  the beautifully-dressed, handsome assassin that is a hollowed out shell until he meets that one girl (the pianist, in this case); there’s the double-cross by his employers, the cat and mouse games with police and other assassins.  In the Paris of this movie rains almost as much as Ridley Scott’s future Los Angeles.  (Costello and Deckard have a very similar feel to their characters.)  And there’s the last hit gone bad due to his change of heart about the job.

The movie is a bit slow moving and modern action fans might find it drags, but it’s worth a look.