Ho! [Ho! Criminal Face] ** (1968, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Joanna Shimkus, Sydney Chaplin) – Classic Movie Review 11,563

Director Robert Enrico’s 1968 French-Italian crime film Ho! [Criminal Face – Storia di un Criminale] stars Jean-Paul Belmondo, Joanna Shimkus and Sydney Chaplin.

As the race car driver François Holin, nicknamed Ho, Belmondo returns to the archetypal role of the rugged, smiling petty hoodlum he created in Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless. Ho abandons racing and becomes part of a gang of bank robbers, whose members the Schwartz brothers despise him but need his skills as a getaway driver.

But, although the film is based on José Giovanni’s solid 1964 gangster novel Ho!, Enrico’s direction is flat and the picture is dull and predictable.

Belmondo is tempted into self-parody and Shimkus has a thankless task as Bénédicte, the model who loves him. Alain Delon puts in a cameo as man at airport.

The cast are Jean-Paul Belmondo as François Holin, Joanna Shimkus as Bénédicte, Raymond Bussières as Robert, Paul Crauchet as Gabriel Briand, Stéphane Fey as Schwartz Junior, Alain Mottet as Paul, Tony Taffin as Old Schwartz, André Weber as La Praline, Jackie Sardou as Mado, Bob Ingarao as Schneider, Pierre Leproux as Roger, Jean-Paul Tribout as Falsten, Sydney Chaplin as Canter, Jean-Pierre Castaldi as Bénédicte’s friend and Alain Delon as man at airport.

Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,563

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more reviews: http://derekwinnert.com/