Jean-Pierre Melville presents a murky criminal underworld in his gangland classic.

It's a moody, ruminative lowlife crime drama winding up with as many corpses on the floor as Hamlet, and pungent with the sweaty maleness of Melville's tough-guy pictures.

Some amazing moments, but something of a drag all told.

In its violence and speed and vigour, this absurd jungle of the imagination is more or less bound to photograph well; Melville, however, does a particularly clean job of direction.