So this is a 1955 French film that everyone describes as “a heist movie,” and you can see why they do: There’s this whole elaborate break-in and safe-cracking scene when they rob a jewelry store, where they spend a lot of time practicing it in their basement with a private security system, and then where the whole thing is this giant setpiece of the movie, filmed without music (and almost without sound, as they’re trying to be super-quiet). If you’re going to remember one scene of the movie, that’s the one it’ll be.

But the thing is, it’s also a scene that happens basically halfway through the movie, because then what happens is that it pivots into being kind of a Coen Brothers movie: The gang that heisted the jewels is now being hunted down and threatened and murdered by a rival criminal. And so ultimately that criminal kidnaps the five year old boy of one of the heist gang, and trying to get him back turns into a tragic farce where missed communication (this is a movie whose ending would be radically changed by cell phones) leads to… well, basically every adult character getting shot and killed.

The last scene of the movie is the Danny Ocean figure, shot and bleeding out, trying to drive the little boy back home so that he can give the kid and the briefcase of cash to the mom/new widow. Thanks to the “nobody wears seatbelts” nature of the era, I was half expecting the kid to die during this drive, but ultimately they get almost there before the guy finally dies at the wheel, and the mom sees them on the street and is able to snatch the kid up, but the money briefcase is found and opened by the police.

Motto: CRIME DOESN’T PAY. Not even if you’re able to run a sweet-ass heist.

Oh, also! There’s a totally random subplot with Not Danny Ocean’s ex-wife, and he basically whips her with a belt (like, leaving scars on her back) as one of the first things we see him do, so it’s not like you’re cheering real hard for him throughout the movie.