Maurice rushes to Silien's home to tell Kern that the hit is off. Maurice manages to arrive in Ponthierry before Silien, but Kern mistakes him for Silien and shoots him. When Silien arrives, he sees Maurice lying on the carpet. With his dying breath, Maurice warns Silien that someone is hiding behind the dressing screen, and Silien shoots at the screen, hitting Kern, who is able to shoot Silien before dying. Silien stumbles over to the phone and tells Fabienne he will not see her that evening before adjusting his hat in a mirror and falling down dead. Cast Jean-Paul Belmondo as Silien Serge Reggiani as Maurice Faugel Jean Desailly as Commissaire Clain René Lefèvre as Gilbert Varnove Marcel Cuvelier as Paulo, a police detective Philippe March (credited as Aimé de March) as Jean Fabienne Dali as Fabienne Monique Hennessy as Thérèse Carl Studer as Kern Christian Lude as the doctor Jacques De Leon as Armand Jack Leonard as Joe, a police detective Paulette Breil as Anita Philippe Nahon as Rémy Charles Bayard as the old man at the house in Neuilly Daniel Crohem as Inspector Salignari Charles Bouillaud as the barman at the Cotton Club Michel Piccoli as Nuttheccio Production Le Doulos was shot at Melville's rue Jenner studios in Paris between April and June 1962. The CNC estimated its budget was 2,113,000 French francs. Release The film was released in Paris on 8 February 1963. The French Censorship Commission classified it as forbidden to minors below the age of 13 "in view of violent content which may shock children", and this classification stood until 1983, when the film was passed for all audiences. It took in 485,186 admissions in Paris, and 1,475,391 admissions in France as a whole, which made it, after Leon Morin, Priest (1961), Melville's second-highest grossing film in France to that point (by the end of his career, it was his sixth-highest grossing film). Le Doulos was the first box office hit in several years for Serge Reggiani. Reception The film received strong reviews in France, with Melville biographer Ginette Vincendeau stating: "References to masterly technique, sobriety, elliptical style and narrative efficiency graced almost every review, summed up by L'Express as 'quasi perfection of Le Doulos.'" Claude Beylie wrote in the influential Cahiers du Cinéma that Le Doulos possessed "moral reflection" on truth and lies, and demonstrated an "extraordinary craftsman’s precision, a high love of