"Borsalino" director Jacques Deray's grim French mobster melodrama "The Outside Man," starring Jean-Louis Trintignant, Ann-Margret, and Roy Scheider, chronicles the trials and tribulations of a Frenchman flown to Los Angeles to kill a wealthy crime czar, Victor Kovacs (Ted de Corsia of "Gunfight at the O. K. Corral"), in his palatial Beverly Hills mansion. Lucien Bellon (Jean-Louis Trintignant of "The Great Silence") isn't a professional contract killer. Instead, plagued by a gambling addiction, he must find a way to pay off his enormous debts. Unfortunately, the only way he can raise enough loot to liquidate his debts is to fly from Paris to Los Angeles and ice a notorious crime lord.
After landing in Los Angeles, Lucien checks into the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. The desk clerk hands him a mysterious attaché case along with his room key. In his room, Lucien finds a loaded snub-nosed revolver and an envelope stuffed with cash in the case. Renting a car, Lucien drives out to the Kovacs mansion. The doorman admits him without frisking him for firearms. Victor surprises Lucien then realizes Lucien isn't the man he was expecting. Lucien brandishes his revolver and shoots him dead on the spot with one shot. Earlier, Lucien had emptied the gun in his hotel room and replaced only one bullet instead of the full six. No sooner has Lucien fled the scene of the homicide than an alert circulates about Kovacs's murder. The description of the shooter, however, furnished by Victor's wife Jackie (Angie Dickinson of "Ocean's Eleven") and Victor's son Alex (Umberto Orsini of "La Dolce Vita") doesn't fit Lucien!
While the LAPD struggles to catch the killer, Lucien discovers the Detroit mob has sent an assassin to rub him out. Lenny (Roy Scheider of "Jaws") arrives in town eager to kill Lucien. Fate has a quirky way of intervening on behalf of our protagonist, and Lucien survives three of Lenny's desperate attempts on his life. Meantime, the Frenchman catches up with a bosomy topless bartender, Nancy Robson (Ann-Margret of "Viva Las Vegas"), who agrees to help him get a passport. The dastards who hired Lucien stole both his passport and his plane ticket, so he cannot leave the country. He confers with his Parisian pal Antoine (Michel Constantin of "Violent City") about his predicament over a long-distance phone call. Antoine advises Lucien to look up one of his old girlfriends, Nancy. She arranges for Lucien to buy a forged passport from a cabbie, Karl (Carlo De Mejo of "Teorema"), who can get him one.
Eventually, a naïve Lucien figures out the contract was an inside job, and he served as a mere pawn. Victor's treacherous son Alex had orchestrated Victor's demise. Poised as our protagonist is to leave the country, Lucien has second thoughts and prefers to remain in L. A., so he can discover who set him up. Meantime, Antoine and his bodyguard fly in from Paris to attend Victor's funeral. Probably the most offbeat thing about "The Outside Man" is the funeral itself. When everybody pays their respects to Victor, they find his corpse sitting upright in a chair with a cigar in one hand. What a bizarre way to display an embalmed corpse!
An impromptu gunfight erupts during the funeral when one of Alex's gunsels, Miller (Alex Rocco of "The Godfather") tries to kill Antoine. Instead, Antoine guns down Miller and corners a cowardly Alex playing possum in the casket, finishing Alex off for good. Meantime, Lucien hijacks a hearse. Antoine dies during the getaway from the funeral home but urges Lucien to leave him behind. During the initial gunfire, Lucien himself was wounded, too. As "The Outside Man" concludes, Lucien is sitting behind the steering wheel of the hearse with blood-soaked hands.
This uneven but entertaining crime thriller has its moments. Initially, when Lucien goes on the run, he carjacks a single-mom, Mrs. Barnes (Georgia Engel of "Grown Ups 2"), and forces her at gunpoint to take him to her apartment. Lucien cools his heels there. Mrs. Barnes cooks him supper and her young son, Eric (Jackie Earle Haley of "Watchmen"), wants to know more about him. During a private phone call, Lucien catches the nosy adolescent listening in on his call and slaps him. Meanwhile, every step of the way, Lenny shadows Lucien but fails repeatedly to kill him. At one point, Lucien picks up a hitchhiker who rhapsodizes about Jesus. Cruising up alongside them, Lenny shoots from his car into Lucien's. Miraculously, he misses Lucien but blasts the Jesus freak.
During the rest of the film, Lenny pursues Lucien. He kills the cabbie that provided Lucien with a passport and finally tracks him down to a hotel where he is holed up with Nancy. Their adversarial relationship changes when Lenny decides to team up with Lucien and go to the Kovacs estate. At the last second before they enter the estate, Lenny tries to double-cross the Frenchman, but Lucien kills him with a single shot.
Deray and writers Jean-Claude Carrière and Ian McLellan Hunter complicate matters considerably throughout this brisk, 105-minute thriller. Actually, the filmmakers had not scheduled to shoot "The Outside Man." Unfortunately, the other movie they were going to produce fell apart. Deray's scenarists whipped up this tale in twelve days, and he lensed it before their work permits expired. Composer Michel Legrand garnishes this fish-out-of-water yarn with an interesting orchestral soundtrack that accentuates the action. The abrupt ending with our protagonist parked in the Los Angles river basin with blood on his hands and nowhere to run leaves too many plot threads hanging. Basically, this was 'an inside job' organized by Alex to liquidate his dad Victor using an "Outside Man" from Paris who knew no better.
After landing in Los Angeles, Lucien checks into the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. The desk clerk hands him a mysterious attaché case along with his room key. In his room, Lucien finds a loaded snub-nosed revolver and an envelope stuffed with cash in the case. Renting a car, Lucien drives out to the Kovacs mansion. The doorman admits him without frisking him for firearms. Victor surprises Lucien then realizes Lucien isn't the man he was expecting. Lucien brandishes his revolver and shoots him dead on the spot with one shot. Earlier, Lucien had emptied the gun in his hotel room and replaced only one bullet instead of the full six. No sooner has Lucien fled the scene of the homicide than an alert circulates about Kovacs's murder. The description of the shooter, however, furnished by Victor's wife Jackie (Angie Dickinson of "Ocean's Eleven") and Victor's son Alex (Umberto Orsini of "La Dolce Vita") doesn't fit Lucien!
While the LAPD struggles to catch the killer, Lucien discovers the Detroit mob has sent an assassin to rub him out. Lenny (Roy Scheider of "Jaws") arrives in town eager to kill Lucien. Fate has a quirky way of intervening on behalf of our protagonist, and Lucien survives three of Lenny's desperate attempts on his life. Meantime, the Frenchman catches up with a bosomy topless bartender, Nancy Robson (Ann-Margret of "Viva Las Vegas"), who agrees to help him get a passport. The dastards who hired Lucien stole both his passport and his plane ticket, so he cannot leave the country. He confers with his Parisian pal Antoine (Michel Constantin of "Violent City") about his predicament over a long-distance phone call. Antoine advises Lucien to look up one of his old girlfriends, Nancy. She arranges for Lucien to buy a forged passport from a cabbie, Karl (Carlo De Mejo of "Teorema"), who can get him one.
Eventually, a naïve Lucien figures out the contract was an inside job, and he served as a mere pawn. Victor's treacherous son Alex had orchestrated Victor's demise. Poised as our protagonist is to leave the country, Lucien has second thoughts and prefers to remain in L. A., so he can discover who set him up. Meantime, Antoine and his bodyguard fly in from Paris to attend Victor's funeral. Probably the most offbeat thing about "The Outside Man" is the funeral itself. When everybody pays their respects to Victor, they find his corpse sitting upright in a chair with a cigar in one hand. What a bizarre way to display an embalmed corpse!
An impromptu gunfight erupts during the funeral when one of Alex's gunsels, Miller (Alex Rocco of "The Godfather") tries to kill Antoine. Instead, Antoine guns down Miller and corners a cowardly Alex playing possum in the casket, finishing Alex off for good. Meantime, Lucien hijacks a hearse. Antoine dies during the getaway from the funeral home but urges Lucien to leave him behind. During the initial gunfire, Lucien himself was wounded, too. As "The Outside Man" concludes, Lucien is sitting behind the steering wheel of the hearse with blood-soaked hands.
This uneven but entertaining crime thriller has its moments. Initially, when Lucien goes on the run, he carjacks a single-mom, Mrs. Barnes (Georgia Engel of "Grown Ups 2"), and forces her at gunpoint to take him to her apartment. Lucien cools his heels there. Mrs. Barnes cooks him supper and her young son, Eric (Jackie Earle Haley of "Watchmen"), wants to know more about him. During a private phone call, Lucien catches the nosy adolescent listening in on his call and slaps him. Meanwhile, every step of the way, Lenny shadows Lucien but fails repeatedly to kill him. At one point, Lucien picks up a hitchhiker who rhapsodizes about Jesus. Cruising up alongside them, Lenny shoots from his car into Lucien's. Miraculously, he misses Lucien but blasts the Jesus freak.
During the rest of the film, Lenny pursues Lucien. He kills the cabbie that provided Lucien with a passport and finally tracks him down to a hotel where he is holed up with Nancy. Their adversarial relationship changes when Lenny decides to team up with Lucien and go to the Kovacs estate. At the last second before they enter the estate, Lenny tries to double-cross the Frenchman, but Lucien kills him with a single shot.
Deray and writers Jean-Claude Carrière and Ian McLellan Hunter complicate matters considerably throughout this brisk, 105-minute thriller. Actually, the filmmakers had not scheduled to shoot "The Outside Man." Unfortunately, the other movie they were going to produce fell apart. Deray's scenarists whipped up this tale in twelve days, and he lensed it before their work permits expired. Composer Michel Legrand garnishes this fish-out-of-water yarn with an interesting orchestral soundtrack that accentuates the action. The abrupt ending with our protagonist parked in the Los Angles river basin with blood on his hands and nowhere to run leaves too many plot threads hanging. Basically, this was 'an inside job' organized by Alex to liquidate his dad Victor using an "Outside Man" from Paris who knew no better.