Yes, from beginning to end, "Interdit de séjour" is fast paced, every simple scene is played as an action scene, with lot of movements and fast dialogues by André Tabet (who wrote "la Table aux crevés", "le Piège", "un Témoin dans la ville") adapted by Albert Simonin (who wrote the year before "Touchez pas au grisbi). The other screenwriters are much less known, having worked very few times for cinema. Maurice de Canonge has directed some fine crime movies like "un Flic", "Erreur judiciaire", "l'Homme de la Jamaïque" and "Police judiciaire". Louiguy is the composer of a mouth harp blues, was he influenced by the mouth harp score in "Touchez pas au grisbi"?
The casting, directed energically by Maurice de Canonge, is fantastic, every character is perfect : Claude Laydu as the victim, Joëlle Bernard and Daniel Cauchy as the bad influences to honest Laydu, Paul Frankeur and Robert Dalban at their best as cynical cops, Michel Piccoli as a dangerous and vicious gangster, Pierre Destailles, Henri Crémieux (as the sarcastic judge)...
A nice title in French film noir.
