In Bob le Flambeur, director Jean-Pierre Melville hones both his technical and narrative skills by creating an otherworldly Montmarte neighborhood stuffed with damaged postwar residents who see little hope in traditionally domestic lives and instead seek money, love, and honor through the most expedient paths available. Former bank robber Bob Montagné (Roger Duchesne) has been straight for decades and spends his days gambling away his money. Anne (Isabelle Corey) is a drifting not-quite-hooker of whom Bob feels paternally protective and invites to live in a spare room. Bob’s young acolyte Paulo (Daniel Cauchy) falls in love with Anne and will do anything to win her commitment (“Do big things for me,” she counsels, “Get me the moon”). These three characters will become painfully tangled when Bob, after gambling away his remaining money, decides to orchestrate an all-or-nothing heist of the casino safe. Claude Bouxin’s production design is imaginative and memorable: the gambling den with B&W tiled walls, the smoky back rooms and dramatic wallpaper, Bob’s apartment with a stunning vista of Montmarte through sheer white curtains, etc.