The central device of Gérard Oury’s La menace (US: The Menace) is a motorbike that brings hope, connection, danger, and doom to Josépha (Marie-José Nat), a lonely, orphaned girl (“In order to lie, you must have someone to lie to”) who lives with her imperious, alcoholic uncle (Paolo Stoppa) and longs to be accepted by the young gang of hooligans (“the smart asses”) riding their mopeds all over town and causing trouble, including a particularly obnoxious takeover of a movie theater. Josépha soon encounters Savary (Robert Hossein), the town’s married pharmacist who makes his desire for her abundantly clear, so Josépha hits him up for a loan so she can buy a motorbike to join up with the hooligans. This is when the film shifts into noir territory: when one of the girls in the gang (Joëlle Latour) is found raped and murdered, Josépha, in a misguided effort both to divert suspicion from herself and to impress her new friends, fingers Savary to the police. The remainder of the film bobs on a sea of uncertainty and tension, the relationship between Josépha and Savary becoming a kind of love-hate obsession, with more twists to come. Notable scenes: the party in the uncle’s storage space, including a scooter race where boys try to bite the rose out of Josépha’s teeth; the confrontation between Josépha and Mrs. Savary (Elsa Martinelli) which shifts from cold animosity to crying on a shoulder in about 20 seconds; the climax in the pharmacy at night. Cinematographer Villard indulges his noir sensibilities fairly generously, employing deep focus, unusual camera angles, and seas of shadows to heighten suspense when it counts.