Rififi A Tokyo (1963)

A veteran gangster (Charles Vanel) arrives from France to Tokyo to pull off a daring heist of a precious diamond from a bank vault. However, when his partner (Eiji Okada) in the heist is killed by a rival gang, he turns to the dead man's friend (Karlheinz Bohm) to assist him. Based on the novel by Auguste Le Breton (THE SICILIAN CLAN) and directed by Jacques Deray (BORSALINO). A French and Italian co-production, this often confusing noir-ish crime movie doesn't seem very interested in the actual diamond heist as it is in its characters and their often complicated personal lives. Their motivations are often murky and in the case of the film's titular protagonist (Bohm), maybe even a little existential. The most interesting character in the film is the electronics expert (Michel Vitold) who leads a double life and hides his criminal activities which he does in order to keep his wife (Barbara Lass) in luxuries. Another striking feature of the movie is Tadashi Aramaki's handsome B&W cinematography which gives Tokyo an atmospheric sheen. The atypical score is by Georges Delerue. With Keiko Kishi and Masao Oda.