Classe tous risques

The 1960 French-Italian gangster film Classe tous risques was directed by Claude Sautet. It opened in France on March 23, 1960, and adapts José Giovanni's novel of the same name; Giovanni, Sautet and Pascal Jardin wrote the screenplay together. Lino Ventura, Jean-Paul Belmondo and Sandra Milo star. In the United States it was released as The Big Risk, and its title also puns on the French "Classe Touriste" (economy class).

The story follows the French mobster Abel Davos (Lino Ventura), a fugitive living with his family, as he tries to slip back from Italy into France with the police on his trail. Reaching Paris by way of Marseille, he has to face his old gang, drawn as cowards who break their word and unwilling to help. The one person who helps without asking for anything in return is Eric Stark (Belmondo), a young criminal he has only just met.

The character draws on the last years on the run of a real fugitive, Abel Danos. In the film Davos is shown as a loving, attentive father, and why he is wanted is never explained. Overshadowed by the French New Wave on release, the film is now widely considered a masterpiece and influenced French cinema, especially the later work of Jean-Pierre Melville. It runs 104 minutes.