vostf Except from the opening prologue at the graveyard, Le Pacha starts as a fine crime movie. The robbery is great, and another high point is the scene where Nathalie (Dany Carrel) meets Quinquin (André Pousse) at the 'JNS 3' shop. Then the movie stops being interesting, the whole plot is just let go to reach the agreed upon conclusion. Either they felt too tired after writing the first part or they had to compromise henceforth.Gabin benefits from Audiard's dialog, but he is definitely not the main asset hereI agree with a previous reviewer that Gabin does bog down the global rhythm, he just hams it as he did most of the time in the later decade of his career, playing the tough intractable patriarch. This really makes a boring character that prevents the script from being more clever. Gabin actually demanded that the script be tailored to suit his own image of The Patriarch of French Cinema, and it painfully shows here in contrast with such an interesting, if very violent, first half. Just remember that Gabin had declined to play the lead in Les Tontons Flingueurs, otherwise we would not have had that masterpiece of French comedy.SPOILERS thereafter: the 65min markIMO Le Pacha goes down the drain when Nathalie goes to meet Quinquin at his house. OK she wanted a personal revenge, but she was an interesting character who was cheaply gotten rid of for the sake of a script that is then just dull till the end. Now I understand Gabin would have been reluctant to share more screen time with her, but I really feel the key to a better final act lies with a more clever part for Dany Carrel. It's all too obvious since the movie is just 80min long and we've got this rushed, linear, uninteresting telegraphed ending after the 65min mark. The movie could have been 10min longer and way better... were it not for Mr Gabin almighty star power.

GUENOT PHILIPPE It's probably the movie I have the most seen in my entire life. The first time was in 1972, a Sunday evening, on the first channel. I was only nine years old, and was astonished at this time. Since then, I have never missed any of the airing of this french masterpiece. First, the armored truck heist of the beginning, somewhere in the north of France countryside, with the Serge Gainsbourg soundtrack (Requiem pour un con)is absolutely terrific. I consider it as the most outstanding armored truck attack of the whole crime movie industry. And I am a specialist for this kind of topic - see my other comments. I guess many other film makers were inspired by this sequence. Olivuer Marchall, for 36, Quai des Orfèvres, confessed he was. And Andre Pousse, as Quinquin, the ruthless killer, is also here brilliant at the most. I say he gives in this feature his best performance ever. Unforgettable. When he kills Dany Carrel, It's so good, because you don't expect this. Or this other scene, just after he has killed on of his accomplices with his wife, he quietly checks the horse race tickets while looking for the results on the TV. And concerning one point which has not been told about by the other users, is the police settings. We see a very modern police headquarters, with computers, and the film was made in 1968...Even three decades later, the Quai des Orfèvres - the actual french police headquarters - so know all around the world - was not like this. So nothing is really realistic in this film. Nothing to do with the new french crime movies à la Olivier Marchall. I won't talk about the Alpine Renault used by the police officer, with Jean Gabin sitting in it !!!Yes folks, this is a must see film for those who have missed it.

Franz-Erik Weiss "La Pacha", as a whole is OK. It's not quite up to the Melville standard of tough-guy intrigue, but it'll do. Dampening the initial, promising tempo, unfortunately, is Jean Gabin who seems to be one of those popular actors who's fallen into an artistic pit – and is destined to remain there. If you've seen one of his films, you've seen them all. The exception might be one of his rare comedies, such as "Le Tatoué" (together with Louis de Funès) where he displays an once of versatility. In "La Pacha" however, he's more like a worn-out prop than a necessary figure, and thank God for that for if he'd succeeded in dominating the film too much it would not have been worth seeing at all.I must also say that Serge Gainsbourg's soundtrack single is annoying: disrupting the story like thrusting a jagged toothpick into your eardrum with un-choreographic jolts, all through the film. It is certainly malplacé and it was quite unnecessary, as the slide-sound mixer was surely available in 1968.

MARIO GAUCI This was another Jean Gabin vehicle which often turned up on Italian TV; having decided to check it out, I'm glad I did because it's a pretty good policier! Despite his advancing age, the star is wholly believable as the dogged Police Commissioner (the "Pacha" of the title) - out to avenge his childhood, albeit shady, friend - who's also something of an amiable curmudgeon. The film features an elaborate daylight robbery sequence - after which one member of the gang eliminates all his associates in order to keep the loot for himself (one of them is pushed inside his car onto thin ice which naturally breaks and engulfs him)! - and is fast-paced, and short, enough to never overstay its welcome. Besides, it's given a tremendous boost by a modern percussion-heavy score by celebrated performer/songwriter Serge Gainsbourg (who even appears as himself during a recording session of the tune heard over the opening credits!).There's also a hilarious scene in which the old-fashioned Gabin visits a hippie club - in search of a girl (Dany Carrel of MILL OF THE STONE WOMEN [1960]) who, apart from being a fling of Gabin's deceased colleague, is a link to the robbery mentioned above since she's the sister of one of the culprits (now also dead). Therefore, she and Gabin conspire to trap the man responsible for both deeds and the film ends with an indiscriminate shoot-out - punctuated by an ominous organ drone - in an abandoned warehouse (which curiously anticipates the climax of THE FRENCH CONNECTION [1971]!).