Le Doulos

Le Doulos is a 1962 French crime film directed by Jean-Pierre Melville. It was released theatrically as The Finger Man in the English-speaking world, but all video and DVD releases have used the French title. Intertitles at the beginning of the film explain that its title refers both to a kind of hat and to the slang term for a police informer. Le Doulos is based on a novel by Pierre Lesou. While the film comes before what are considered Melville’s masterpieces of the genre, Le Samouraï and Le Cercle rouge, one can unmistakably observe several of Melville’s trademark techniques in this film.