Some things I liked some I did not.

SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

I gave this film a 9 out of 10, because it was exactly what I expected it to be.

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

Not having a clue as to what this 1958 French film was about, but having seen some of director's Angelique series, plus the presence of tough guy Lino Ventura, we decided to take a chance when it showed on a cable channel not too long ago. The screenplay was a collaboration involving the director, Bernard Borderie, adapting the novel by Antoine-Louis Dominique with the author and Jacques Robert.We are taken to a prison, where Geo Paquet, alias the gorilla, has been serving time. Geo manages to escape by bending down the bars of his cell window. Then, he joins a man in attempting to discover a plot that not only deals with missing atomic secrets. The viewer's credibility is tested throughout the movie, although watching tough man Geo Paquet doing what he did best was enough to warrant a viewing.Lino Ventura had an aura about him that he transmitted from film to film. He was a charismatic actor with a large following because the kind of role which he invariably was called to play. Other notable character actors in the film include Charles Vanel, Pierre Dux, Rene Lefevre, the attractive Bella Darvi, Andre Valmi, and the elegant Marie Sabouret, who was Geo's woman. Ms. Sabouret, a sophisticated woman died right after the film was released.The film has a jazzy score by Jean Leccia and Georges Van Parys. The black and white cinematography is by the great Louis Page who enjoyed a long career in the French cinema. Watch the film as curiosity, even more so, if the viewer is a fan of the late Lino Ventura.

Bernard Borderie, on the evidence of this film, and the half-dozen Angélique films he made, was a competent journeyman director. He never inspires but sometimes he pleases the viewer, at least when actors like Pierre Dux, René Lefèvre and Charles Vanel are given sizeable parts. He uses his actors well, and this covers up the mediocrity of the plot (missing atomic weapons secrets, again!).Lino Ventura uses his panache to get over the absurd aspects of the story--his supposed superhuman powers (breaking his chains, à la Samson) only make us snicker. Such was this man's appeal that we can watch him do the most preposterous things (he was a wrestler, and could do his own stunts) and be entertained.