Lemmy Caution is back for his fifth French film as the hard boiled FBI agent. Rarely seen not hitting someone, drinking whiskey or grabbing a woman, he was an enormously popular character in France. Hard to say why exactly. Kind of like their love for Jerry Lewis and garlic. Some things can't be explained. Caution was played by American actor Eddie Constantine for eight films from 1953 to 1965 (the very peculiar Alphaville from Godard is the most famous) and then years later reprised the role a few times. Constantine had no acting experience when he was first chosen for the role - the producer just thought he looked suitably tough with a face that had seen some long nights at the bottom of a bottle. He ended up making a lot of films in France - pretty much always cast as a rough and tumble character even portraying spy Nick Carter a few times. I would love to get some of these French films but highly unlikely they are available with English subs. Which reminds me - this DVD was dubbed in English - a good job actually as the dubber gives Caution a John Wayne swagger in his voice. Still it was dubbed which is never a good thing.


Caution breaks a lot of furniture along with a few jaws in this one. Starting right from the beginning when he insists on having whiskey in a rip-off nightclub that insists he have expensive watered down champagne. He ends up drinking whiskey. He is in France to track down a spy who no one knows what he looks like and who is famous for taking on various identities. Caution isn't subtle in his investigation - he just knocks down doors and threatens people with bodily damage to get answers - though after a few people end up dead he does admit that some might think he is bad luck. This is mildly fun - low budget - black and white - shot primarily on indoor studio sets but with a nicely scored soundtrack and a not very complicated plot. It rests on Constantine. He takes up solid space - maybe a B Humphrey Bogart but that isn't so bad. The films are based on the books by Peter Cheyney who wrote ten of them from 1936 to 1945. I read the first one in the series and it was less subtle than the films or a punch in the face.