Lee Cobb´s possibly last film. A film, by the way, with less reputation than that of its ubiquitous con artist Nick, who, upon finding a new partner, this time a circus dwarf, pulled off the heist of his life. The circus dwarf hates drugs and alcohol because of his liver, and women have never lived up to his standards. Before the train robbery, he assures Nick, so there are no misunderstandings, that he was not born a dwarf, but that it is a disease he contracted as he grew up and became a dwarf. Anyway, we already know the trick hidden in a small chest for a big dwarf. He climbs out of the trunk with the train in motion and that’s it. Everyone chases after the thief Nick while the dwarf walks away with his forklift and the chest of jewels. How did the saying go? ‘You can conquer China on horseback, but you can’t rule it on horseback’? It’s one thing to steal the treasure of another crook – but an American one – named Robert Clark and insured for 4 million Swiss francs, and quite another to sell it or turn it into money.

How did Nick fare? He went to Will Ethern, who gave him one per cent of the value = 40,000 francs in cash for a ring and the promise that he would bring him the rest of the jewels. Shortly afterwards, two men show their disagreement with the middleman by slitting his throat. In any case, Nick was not prepared for his best friend to be murdered as he left the bar, drunk with joy at being a millionaire thanks to the jewels and the buyer, nor for Will to be left without a buyer. The character’s spoiler is then justified by the reasons for the plot against Clark and the visit to his mother, who showers him with affection and verbal flowers, only to hear that the prodigal son has hatched his plan against the gangster. His childhood friends greet him as never before when he turns to them, then turn their backs on him as soon as they hear that he is going after Clark the American. This is how Etienne Eichman, with his sad surname, according to his own description, was born, with his hair flattened by styling gel and a jacket even sadder than his imposture. Nick deceives Shantala, and the best scene in the film, apart from the ending, takes place: Shantala’s nudity as she recommends Eichman to Clark for the purchase and sale of large quantities of iron on the pretext that its value will rise. But the cheque or ring stratagem involving Parker Jewellers and forcing Clark to pay restitution of £200,000 for a night in jail and the business deal that Nick (posing as Eichman) claimed to have lost. Incidentally, I can’t think of a better old bird than Lee J. Cobb to play the powerful but humiliated Clark, self-assured and yet a drifter adrift after falling into the plot hatched by Axel Rose (Luc Mreneda). When they come face to face because of the annoyance of what Clark considered a mere mosquito, the crook’s lieutenant and private secretary tells Nick, ‘We’ll meet again very soon.’ ‘Very true,’ Nick smiled and said to himself. Indeed, in Lugano, on the boat, like a bird of ill omen, Nick came up behind Clark, mockingly hugging him and greeting him once they had set sail. The secretary pushed him away, and immediately a woman approached Clark ostentatiously, throwing herself at him (they were on deck), and the crook pushed her away, but when Nick tried to leave the boat, he stopped him in front of everyone and announced that he had caught them for fraud. He took them off the boat to a fake patrol car, where he laughed at Clark because he was about to get his just deserts. While Nick, Maurice and his own mother search Clark’s house and other properties to finish incriminating him, the police detain Clark and arrest him in Lugano without setting sail and accuse him of Chantal’s murder. But ha ha ha, when Clark picks up the phone very angry and dials lawyer Mercier, it is Nick’s mother who answers, faking her voice. It won’t be the best idea to fake it when his fake solicitor arrives and savours the words, ‘I apologise, Mr Clark, for using the word, but this is shit, and the more you stir it, the more it stinks.’ The scriptwriter’s brain is fried, LOL. ‘Quel figlio di putanna di Hezard ha usato a Chatal per fregarmi’. Meanwhile, even though he hasn’t killed anyone, when the experts visit to investigate the crime he didn’t commit, the women spit in his face and detest him. The best part, I insist, is Cobb’s face, as if two of Cleopatra’s slaves were insulting him. It’s also funny in the line-up or parade of suspects where the paid witnesses that Nick bought with the same 200 grand that Clark gave him in the bounced cheque scam, the witnesses, I mean, yell ‘faggot’ and other insults at him. The charade ends when they make Clark believe that he must take the flight to Caracas to escape justice because the fake police and agents arrive and are supposed to arrest Nick, and he takes the opportunity to escape with the stolen jewellery from the beginning.