Copyright 31 December 1965 by Les Films du Siecle—Produzioni Artische Internazionali. New York opening at the Paris: 18 April 1966. U.S. release through International Classics: 18 April 1966. Australian release through 20th Century-Fox: 29 September 1966. Sydney opening at the Embassy. 102 minutes (U.S.); 111 minutes (Australia).French release title: Métamorphose des cloportes.SYNOPSIS: Three French thieves make plans to rob a pawnbroker's shop, located next door to a funeral parlor.COMMENT: "Cloportes" is really off-beat and highly original in script and direction, and comes with a top-flight cast including Lino Ventura, Charles Aznavour, Irina Demick, Pierre Brasseur and François Rosay. It's all so grippingly suspenseful, I would regard it as one of the best films of the year. In my opinion, it easily outshone most of the films that were highly publicized. Would you believe that Fox's publicity man had no idea what the title meant? I had to tell him and the other journalists at the preview screening that it meant "The Metamorphosis of the Wood Lice", a very appropriate title in view of what the thieves did to gain access from the funeral parlor to the pawnbroker's shop.

Very good! Except for the death of Rouquemoute (Georges Géret), which is rather bland compared to the previous acts of violence by Alphonse, the Clever (Lino Ventura), this is an excellent comedy drama, with good acting all over. It is a motion picture mainly about male characters (with a funny performance by Pierre Brasseur, a bit above the others), but there are three special female parts played by three fine actresses: first, the great Françoise Rosay (once Mrs. Jacques Feyder) as Gertrude, a quiet but vibrant old lady, that somehow made me remember her cunning Cornelia de Witte in "La kermesse héroïque"; then there is lovely Irina Demick, in what could well be the most advantageous role in her whole career; and last but not least Annie Fratellini, the great French circus artist, in a funny and sad performance as prostitute Léone (a real "Irma la douce"). It took me 48 years to finally see this film, which never arrived in Panamanian shores back in its day. Highly recommendable, with the added bonus of Jimmy Smith's score.

"Cloportes" is a film from a very crowded genre--European heist films. With such classics as "Rififi", "Grand Slam" and "Bob le Flambeur" (and many others), it is hard for "Cloportes" to stand out from the crowd. However, it has one big advantage--it stars the king of cool French gangsters, Lino Ventura. And as for Ventura, he made several other heist films such as "Touchez Pas au Grisbi", "La Bonne Annee" and "Le Deuxième Soufflé"! As I said, it's a crowded genre! Ventura is a big-time crook. Against his better judgment, he agrees to finance a safe cracking job--even though the guys seem like complete amateurs. He needs the money to keep living his lavish lifestyle and lets down his guard. And, because they are idiots, their ineptness result in Ventura being captured and sent to prison. He does not talk about who else was involved with the caper--he just does his time. But he's mad--not just because these guys bungled the job but because they lied in order to get his financing--and this lie resulted in him losing several years of his life. Not surprisingly, he's out for revenge.Fortunately, unlike the other heist movies this one is a bit difference. The heist itself only occupies the beginning of the film--much more of it is focused on what happens afterwords. And, of all the characters Ventura encounters after prison, the most interesting must be the beautiful woman played by Irina Demick! Well worth seeing and with a nice twist near the end. Not among Ventura's best--but considering how wonderful he always was, this isn't an insult to "Cloportes"--it's still a terrific film.

Great sixties french film noir, the opening shot is a stunner. the ensemble acting is really marvelous, the movie oscillate constantly between comedy and drama and that's good. Like many movies from the period should be rediscovered one day on DVD.