| Les Tontons flingueurs | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Georges Lautner |
| Produced by | Irénée Leriche Alain Poiré Robert Sussfeld |
| Written by | novel Albert Simonin dialogue AJ Carothers Georges Lautner |
| Starring | Lino Ventura Bernard Blier |
| Music by | Michel Magne |
| Cinematography | Maurice Fellous |
| Editing by | Michelle David |
| Release date(s) | 4 October 1963 (West Germany) |
| Running time | 105 min. |
| Country | West Germany |
| Language | English, German, French |
Les Tontons flingueurs (English: Crooks in Clover, also known as Monsieur Gangster) is a 1963 French-Italian-German film, made in the French language, directed by Georges Lautner. It is an adaptation of the Albert Simonin book Grisbi or not grisbi.
The film was not enormously popular on first release, in 1963. But its reputation grew with the passing years and it is now a classic of French-speaking television, while the DVD version, released in 2002, sold 250,000 copies.
One of the most famous scenes is set in a kitchen where the gangsters try to make nonchalant conversation while drinking a vile and strong liquor. Screenwriter Michel Audiard considered it useless and it might never have existed, but the director included the scene in homage to the film noir Key Largo.
Fernand Naudin is an ex-gangster, who now deals in agricultural machinery and lives in Montauban. His modest, quiet life is disrupted when his childhood friend, who has become the Boss of a gangster organisation, summons him to his death bed. He has to take care of his friend's "business" and of his daughter, Patricia, who only thinks about having fun and has never been kept in a college for more than six months. As if it wasn't enough, by taking the Boss's (his friend's) golden seat, Fernand angers most of the other gangsters who hoped to become the new Boss and during the movie, he escapes many murder attempts by people inside the organisation.
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