Magnet of Doom

Melville's film set in America, uncertain in genre: neither a crime film nor quite a drama. Michel is a former boxer looking for work in Paris who takes a job as a driver for a wealthy businessman. The man is called Ferchaux, and the situation soon becomes clear: he is fleeing a financial investigation in France and leaving for America with what money he has. Michel goes with him. From there it becomes a road film: New York, then south, then Louisiana. The relationship between them keeps shifting; who is using whom is unclear, and the balance changes as the money goes. Jean-Paul Belmondo plays Michel and Charles Vanel plays Ferchaux. The source is a novel by Georges Simenon. The film is usually skipped in accounts of Melville's work; he said himself that he was unhappy with it and that shooting in America had not gone as he expected. A necessary link for anyone following Melville completely. For a viewer expecting something like Le Samouraï or Le Cercle Rouge it is loose and scattered; what is interesting is the shifting power between the two actors.