Director: Claude Sautet
Cast: Lino Ventura (Abel Davos), Sandra Milo (Liliane), Jean-Paul Belmondo (Eric Stark), Marcel Dalio (Arthur Gibelin), Michel Ardan (Riton Vintran), Simone France (Therese Davos), Michèle Méritz (Sophie Fargier), Stan Krol (Raymond), Evelyne Ker, Betty Schneider (La petite bonne), France Asselin (Madame Vintran), J.P. Zola [Jean-Pierre Zola], Sylvain Lévignac, Jeanne Pérez (Jacqueline Chapuis), René Génin (Chapuis), Charles Blavette (Bénazet), Aimé de March [Philippe March], Corrado Guarducci (Ferucci), Robert Desnoux (Pierrot, l’enfant), Thierry Lavoye (Daniel, l’enfant), Claude Cerval (Raoul Fargier), Jacques Dacqmine (Blot)
Uncredited (according to IMDB): Bernard Dhéran (Blastone)
Year: 1960
Release date: 23/03/1960
International release dates: In Italia: Asfalto che scotta (01/04/60) – In Germania Occ.: Der Panther wird gehetzt (06.05.60 – 105′) – In Gran Bretagna: The Big Risk (1964 – 112′)
Country: France / Italy
Production companies: Films Odéon, Paris (Francia), Filmsonor, Paris (Francia), Mondex Films, Paris (Francia), Zebra Film (Italy).
Story: José Giovanni (novel)
Screenplay: Claude Sautet, José Giovanni, Pascal Jardin
Cinematography: Ghislain Cloquet
Music: Georges Delerue
Editor: Albert Jurgenson
Plot: Abel Davis is a criminal, hunted in Italy. The police are closing in, so he and his pal Raymond arrange to flee back to France with Abel’s wife, Thérèse, and their two young sons. Abel and Raymond commit a brazen robbery to get funds, killing two men; in the escape, more die. Abel arrives in Nice with the boys, calls his pals in Paris, and gets the brush-off. Reluctantly, they send a stranger, Eric Stark, to bring Abel to Paris, but he’s getting the message he’s on his own. Honor, friendship, and debt now count for little. What can Abel, a wanted man with two small children and only Stark as a friend, do? “Never give ground,” he tells Eric, but how long can he hold to his code? (IMDB)
Notes: Like many of the early Italian crime films of the 1960s, this was a French co-production which didn’t have a great deal on input from the Italian side. It is partly set in Milan and features Sandra Milo, who made her name in Italian cinema, but that’s about it. Still, it’s supposed to be a great film, and stands as the first crime film of the 60s with any Italian involvement.