Razzia sur la chnouf (1955)
Director:
Henri Decoin
Writers:
Auguste Le Breton (based on the novel by), Henri Decoin (adaptation)
Stars:
Jean Gabin, Marcel Dalio, Lino Ventura
The venerable French leading man Gabin plays the curiously sympathetic head of an international narcotics ring, invited from across the Atlantic to oversee the European branch of his operation. Using a fancy restaurant as a cover, the drug lord keeps his fingers in several crooked pies. One questionable sequence suggests that black singers and dancers can only "swing" when high on drugs.