For a Cop’s Hide [Pour La Peau d’un Flic] ** (1981, Alain Delon, Anne Parillaud, Michel Auclair, Daniel Ceccaldi, Jean-Pierre Darras, Mireille Darc) – Classic Movie Review 5555

Alain Delon himself co-writes and directs the popular 1981 French crime-thriller For a Cop’s Hide [Pour La Peau d’un Flic], which goes well for while, with plenty of intrigue, but starts to unravel way before the end. It is Delon’s directorial debut and he also stars. Several of the original cast reappear as different characters in this follow-up to Three Men to Kill [Trois Hommes à Abattre] (1980), also based on a novel by Jean-Patrick Manchette.

Mystery haunts Delon’s character of ex-cop Choucas, now working as a private detective, who is hired by an elderly woman to investigate the disappearance of her blind daughter, leading him on the trail of a drug pushing gang, and he soon finds himself wanted for two murders. Choucas is assisted by his secretary Charlotte (Anne Parillaud) and by retired commissioner Haymann (Michel Auclair). The movie provides a complex conundrum in the Hitchcock vein, though its handling is lacking in the master’s clever and delicate touch.

Delon and Christopher Frank provide the screenplay from Manchette’s novel Que d’os!

Also in the cast are Anne Parillaud as Choucas’s secretary Charlotte, Michel Auclair, Daniel Ceccaldi, Jean-Pierre Darras, Xavier Depraz, Jacques Rispal, Gérard Hérold, Pierre Belot, Pascale Roberts, Willy Holt, Brigitte Lahaie, Dominique Zardi, Henri Attal, Mireille Darc (in an uncredited cameo as La Grande Sauterelle / The Great Grasshopper), Annick Alane, Michel Berreur, Philippe Castelli and Claire Nadeau.

The cinematography is by Jean Tournier, it is produced by Alain Delon and Horst Wendlandt, it is scored by Sidney Bechet and Oscar Denton and the production is designed by Théo Meurisse.

It is followed by Le Battant (1983).

The cast are Alain Delon as Choucas, Anne Parillaud as Choucas’s secretary Charlotte, Michel Auclair as retired commissioner Haymann / Tarpon, Daniel Ceccaldi as Commissioner Coccioli, Jean-Pierre Darras as Commissioner Chauffard, Xavier Depraz as Kasper, Jacques Rispal as Professor Bachhoffer, Gérard Hérold as Pradier, Pierre Belot as Jude, Annick Alane as Isabelle Pigot, Pascale Roberts as Renée Mouzon, Michel Berreur as Pérez, Philippe Castelli as Jean the barman, Claire Nadeau as the TV presenter, Brigitte Lahaie as the Nurse, Dominique Zardi as Le petit chauve, Henri Attal as Le type au flipper, and Mireille Darc (uncredited) as La Grande Sauterelle / The Great Grasshopper.

RIP Mireille Darc, who died on 28 August 2017, aged 79. The French cinema icon worked frequently with Alain Delon and director Georges Lautner.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5555

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