The Dictator's Guns

An experienced skipper is hired to buy a boat in the Caribbean on behalf of a rich American woman. The job looks straightforward. But the boat disappears, bodies surface afterwards, and the skipper finds himself facing a charge of gun-running. Nobody believes him and he has to clear his own name. Claude Sautet's French film puts Lino Ventura at its centre. Sautet would later be known for quiet family dramas; this is early work and closer to genre. Sylva Koscina is also in the cast. The telling does not push the action, drawing its tension from waiting instead. The sea, the heat and the stillness make the atmosphere of the film.