Lucky Jo (1964) - film review

Lucky Jo is a crook for whom nothing ever seems to go right.  He is an amiable sort of guy, always means to do good, but somehow the gods are never on his side – as his gang discovers when he wrecks their criminal exploits.  After a spell in jail, Lucky Jo is surprised to find than none of his former accomplices want anything to do with him.   He manages to track down his friend Simon and persuades him to lend him his car.  But the Lucky Jo curse strikes again!  The car is stolen and used in a hold-up by another crook, with the result that Simon is set to become the victim of another miscarriage of justice...

Having been assistant to film director Henri Decoin for several years, Michel Volkovitch, better known as Michel Deville, started his directing career in 1958 with an average thriller Une balle dans le canon starring Mijanou Bardot (Brigitte’s sister).  Then, between 1961 and 1963, he made three contemporary comedies - Ce soir ou jamais, Adorable menteuse and À cause d’une femme - which brought a breath of fresh air to French cinema at the height of the Nouvelle Vague.  Deville seems to have made his mark and, after a moderate success with L’Appartement des filles, there came Lucky Jo, on 11th November 1964.

The script, written by Deville and his faithful screenwriter Nina Companeez, is based on the book Main pleine by Pierre Lesou, the author of Le Doulos (filmed by Jean-Pierre Melville) and Un conde (adapted by Yves Boisset).   By 1964 it seemed that no one wanted crime movies in the Touchez pas au grisbi tradition.  Already (in 1963) director Georges Lautner had adapted, with success, a book by Albert Simonin entitled Grisbi or not grisbi into a famous crime comedy, Les Tontons flingueurs. Lucky Jo should have been a small gangster movie but ended up as an appealing bittersweet crime-comedy whose charm and freshness still remain.

The cast is of high quality, although father and son Pierre and Claude Brasseur (who played together for the first time) don’t have the best parts or scenes.  Georges Wilson, Jean-Pierre Darras, Christiane Minazzoli (seen with Eddie Constantine in Les femmes d’abord and À toi de faire mignonne) were better suited for their roles.  There is also the sexy Françoise Arnoul (a star of French cinema since the 50s) and her lovely tune, which she sings by herself.  

But what about Eddie Constantine?   Michel Deville got to know the actor and so could really tease out his true nature, a sensitive and kind man who had become trapped in a series of B movies playing Lemmy Caution, the character that made him famous.  When Deville conceived the part of Lucky Jo for him (so-called because he only brings bad luck), he brought Constantine to his finest performance, on a par with the one he gives in Jean-Luc Godard’s Alphaville.  His persona, a relaxed man of action, serves the movie perfectly.  The fight scenes and comedy never spoil the sweet sadness of the film.

Lucky Jo gives a twist to the well-defined codes of the thriller genre by adding a poetic touch.  Marred by just a few flaws, the script is smarter than that of most French film noir thrillers of the time and avoids all of the melodramatic clichés.  The film betrays the book only in its ending, but this is for a good reason.   Lucky Jo can only be found on DVD in the first box of the four dedicated to Michel Deville’s 50 year-long career.

© Willems Henri (Brussels, Belgium) 2012

Write a review for this film...

What do you think of this film?