Am I Missing Something?

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Interesting jazz-fuelled crime film telling the tale of two hitman on their way to kill a fella in France. The man has to die because he could testify against a Mafioso who has been indicted, but one of the hitmen has a personal reason for whacking the guy too.This hitman is played by Quincy MD himself, Jack Klugman (I had to look that up),whose sister was knocked up and left alone by the victim, but the other hitman is played by Henry Silva, and his character is a no nonsense, pragmatic individual who likes to play everything 'clean'. Both men travel through France, discussing the business they find themselves in, discovering France, and complaining about the food.There's two separate sub-plots going on too, as we learn about the victim and his women troubles, and then there's guy sent to stop the hit as the Mafioso is released from prison and doesn't want linked to the forthcoming murder. I can quite happily report here that although this film lacks the car chases, chin-socking and violence of later Euro-crime films, the pay off is brilliant and the ending a classic. The strong actors help, as Klugman comes across as the more humane of the too, while the young Silva has eyes that would melt cement. Look out for future Italian exploitation star Donald O'brien as a rather violent mob bosses secretary

Very Very strange film, far from exciting, just two killers on the road to kill discussing about their "profession" or about anything they meet in France comparing it to States or not ("it looks like California").it's more a new wave gangster movie than traditional, and the cinematography by Raoul Coutard reminds me of Breathless by Jean-Luc Godard, with lot of ordinary conversation : for example, the two hit men discuss about the song they're listening on radio, "The House Of Rising Sun", saying "look what they've done about it" (I think I recognized Johnny Halliday singing).At last, there is some action in the end with the final confrontation. So we have a movie with lot of conversation (and even lot of shots showing places around with no particular help for the fiction) ending on a slaughter. Well, I wouldn't be surprised that Quentin Tarentino loves Hail Mafia. And even Wenders and Jarmusch.The main actors, Jack Klugman, Henri Silva and Eddie Constantine are perfect in tough guys, it's just a pity the movie do not show them more in action as tough guys. But it is a good surprise seeing Eddie Constantine as a looser, without any Lemmy Caution private joke. A great noir character for him. Eddie Constantine played the same year in Alphaville by Godard. 1965 was his new wave year.Personally, I like jazz score but I found this one doesn't fit with the movie, the music being completely different from the story, but that's personal opinion.So, if you like action packed gangster movies, don't jump on it. If you like Godard style, this one is for you.

This film is adapted from a Pierre Lesou's novel, the author of LE DOULOS, adapted by Jean-Pierre Melville in 62; one of his masterpieces. I read all Lesou's novels, I know them very well, and this novelist was the closest of them all to Melville's world. A world of cold, complex, and metaphysics friendship among gangsters. Cerebral atmospheres that most of Melville's fans - and there are many - know as well as I do. Yes, yes, yes, Melville SHOULD have done this film, HAIL MAFIA, it should have been a film for him. And certainly not for Raoul Levy. I won't say he is a lousy film maker. I think he did the best. But when I think of Melville when watching this film, I feel pain inside of me.In his movie, Levy shows us a short sequence of Brigitte Bardot dancing in one of her films: ET DIEU CREA LA FEMME. Levy committed suicide several months after his feature - HAIL MAFIA - because of his love for Bardot.A good film, as far as I can appreciate. It is very rare in France. I only got it from the USA.

Writer-director-producer Raoul Levy hit a home run with this moody, intelligent, very-well acted crime film. On the surface, the plot seems simple--mafia soldiers Henry Silva and Jack Klugman are on an assignment to kill a former mafia guy played by Eddie Constantine. But the story--and most of the film--is really about the relationship between Henry Silva's and Jack Klugman's characters, and both give brilliant performances. I would never have thought of this pair of actors together, but as well as I know each of their works, I saw only the two characters, real people, not the actors. Eddie Constantine is not in the film all that much--it's Klugman and Silva's movie. Raoul Levy is probably best known here in the US as the producer of five Bridget Bardot films and of the underrated THE DEFECTOR, the last movie of Montgomery Clift. The washed-out monochrome photography by Raoul Coutard, the brilliant jazz score by Hubert Rostaing, and Levy's intelligent, literate script all come together in a powerful film that will pack an unexpected wallop for those expecting just another euro-crime film. No wonder Henry Silva's european career took off right after this film. The existential plot could easily have been from a spaghetti western or a samurai film, and anyone who has ever considered those genres (and the euro-crime film) as metaphors for life and society should find a copy of this film as soon as possible. For me, one of the five best European-made crime films of the 1960's, and I've seen hundreds of them.