Cinema: Bug Study

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Cloportes is French for lice—and slang for the killers, con men, pimps, prostitutes and safecrackers of the Paris underworld. The movie begins with a comically bumbled robbery, and continues on the strength of its fallout. A rough-hewn racketeer (Lino Ventura) goes to prison for the job, hating himself almost as much as he hates the doublecrossing colleagues who have ruined his pursuit of beaux-arts — to lease a blowtorch for the caper, he was forced to sell one of his stolen Braques. His time served, the former art collector returns to Paris and starts turning over rocks, bent on vengeance.

At worst, Cloportes is a squashy but grimly amusing study of insect behavior. At best, it pins down some first-rate talent. France's Singing Idol Charles Aznavour wryly impersonates a crook-turned-cultist whose swami act is last seen floating in the Seine, and Veteran Actress Françhise Rosay rabbets in some surprises as a hardened crone who rents out high-powered burglary tools by the hour. Any doubt that the female is the deadlier of the species is dispelled by shapely Irina Demick, who shows up rather late as an art gallery receptionist all abustle with her own bright ideas about framing. A sweet and submissive mantrap, Irina ultimately makes away with an art collection, most of the petty cash, and the show.