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Ep. 80 Any Number Can Win & Touchez Pas Au Grisbi

“Don’t gush over the sea. It’s always been there.”

It's a “Jean Gabin is getting too for this shit” double feature!

On this episode, hosts Christopher Funderburg and John Cribbs discuss two unforgettable French crime films: Jacques Becker's Touchez pas au grisbi (1954) and Henri Verneuil's Any Number Can Win (1963), both starring the grandfather of quiet cool, M. Jean Gabin. Playing aging gangsters intent on making off with that last big score, the legendary leading man slipped into these late-career roles like a comfy pair of silk pajamas - and looked amazing in those pajamas, too.

Eyeing longtime Pink Smoke favorite Grisbi like a coveted bar of gold, the guys question why it's so difficult to contextualize such an obvious masterpiece, its director's place in cinema history and what the movie is really about. They compare it to Verneuil's later film, which also features Alain Delon as a (gorgeous) young thug enlisted by Gabin to heist a seaside casino. Both movies are fun, sad, sexy and poetic as any great French crime film, but most importantly they help establish the difference between a gentleman and a pimp.

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Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” 
Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas”

Broadcast on:
03 Aug 2021