Studio Canal/Lionsgate has released a barebones DVD of Honor Among Thieves, the 1968 French caper film originally titled Farewell, Friend (Adieu l'Ami), starring Alain Delon and Charles Bronson. Featuring a long central safecracking sequence that's oddly hypnotic, the beginning and end of Honor Among Thieves are less successful, with overly familiar crime meller elements sifted through a weirdo Euro-60s macho French sensibility. Still, it's hard to argue against watching Delon and Bronson roll through some nicely composed widescreen frames, and the nostalgia factor is high if you remember these kinds of foreign offerings at the drive-in and on pre-cable late night TV.

Having returned from Algeria, soldiers/mercenaries/French Foreign Legionnaires (the film is a little cagey in identifying their actual military occupations) Dino Barran (Alain Delon), a doctor, and Franz Propp (Charles Bronson), a tough killer, still rattle each other's chains (again, the film suggests there's some kind of backstory between the two, but it's never detailed). When Franz sniffs out that Dino is on to some kind of caper, he decides to shine Franz on a little, to see if he can get in on the action. His first tip off comes when Dino is met at the Marseilles harbor by Isabelle Moreau (Olga Georges-Picot), a beautiful mystery woman who is searching for Mozart, a fellow soldier/doctor. Isabelle contacts Dino again, hoping to find Mozart, and tells Dino about her plan to reinsert $50,000 worth of bearer bonds back into her Paris company's basement safe (as with most of Honor Among Thieves, it's shady as to why she would want to put them back). Telling Dino of Mozart's agreement to help her with her plan, Dino decides to take over for the missing Mozart, and aid Isabelle.

The plan is this: Dino, a doctor, will perform the company's medical check-ups for its personnel over a three day period, right before the Christmas holiday. While in his office, a camera will be set up to view the adjoining basement safe area in the hopes of catching the safe's combination when it's opened and closed by company personnel. The company building, loaded with alarms and sensors, its byzantine hallways patrolled by uniformed guards, will be empty over the holiday (except for walk-throughs by the security guards every twelve hours), so once Dino has the combination, he can load the bearer bonds back into the safe. There's only one hitch: after extensive surveillance, there are only three numbers visible from the photos, for the seven-dial safe. Dino must stay in the building during the three days, trying out the various combinations (all 10,000 of them - I know, I know) until he cracks the safe.

Meanwhile, Franz, pimping and stealing a little to get some dough up to travel to Africa for mercenary work, finds out through a nurse friend that Dino has a job as a company doctor. Showing up unannounced at Dino's office, right before it closes for the weekend holiday, Franz worms his way into Dino's operation, expressing skepticism first for Dino's altruism for putting back the bearer bonds for Isabelle, and second for Dino's persistent denials that he's not interested in any money that might be in the safe - like millions in payroll dollars. Soon, both Franz and Dino are alternating spots at the safe, randomly trying to crack it. However, a mistake caused by panic when the guard detail goes by causes the two to become locked in the tomblike safe room, where their ingenuity and endurance are put to the test. Eventually escaping the safe room, however, they discover that a murder has taken place, and that funds are missing from the company; Dino has been set up to take the fall for the murder and theft. Slipping out of the building on Monday morning, the two men split up, and agree to possibly meet later in Marseilles. Franz, however, is caught, and it's up to police inspector Antoine Meloutis (Bernard Fresson) to not only crack him and get a confession, but to also have him admit that Dino aided in the caper and murder.

Certainly the best thing going for Honor Among Thieves is the central safecracking sequence, where Bronson and Delon are locked up in the claustrophobic office building, trying to crack the safe. It's tough to screw up a cinematic set-up like that; there's always inherent viewer interest in seeing film characters confined and limited, setting themselves against mechanical, high-tech obstacles that can turn deadly. Bronson and Delon indulge in childish cat-and-mouse games of one-upmanship (Delon takes all the food out of the vending machines; Bronson runs around the maze-like hallways, leading Delon to a locked-out corridor) that start off funny, but which then turn deadly serious as the pair are accidently locked in the airless, dark safe room. Burning off the bearer bonds for light, they effect their escape through primitive tunneling, but not before they bond as friends, with Delon revealing the secret behind his seemingly inexplicable consent to become Isabelle's fall guy. It's a great scene, nicely filmed for maximum tension, and no doubt enhanced by the handsome, charismatic leads stripped down to the waist.

And there are other odd little scenes and twists in Honor Among Thieves that generate interest, particularly Bronson's weirdo pimping of a girl for some rich pervs. He first puts her on a car turnabout in a garage, spinning her around to those who pay to see her strip. Then, returning to one of the customer's mansion, he has her strip so she can be decorated like a Christmas tree (!) while he robs the upstairs office. Also fun is Bronson's repeated trick, shown off for just about everybody in the film, of dropping coins one by one into a glass full of liquid, without spilling any of it. It's oddly affecting, but ultimately pointless (as is the pimping scene), which can pretty much sum up Honor Among Thieves.

Improbabilities abound in Honor Among Thieves, including perhaps the most silly one where these two guys think they can go through 10,000 possible safe combinations in just three days. The movie makes a point of saying it's mathematically possible (sorry, I'm not a math major), but it seems improbable, particularly since they're always screwing around in the hallways, playing grab-ass with each other, instead of just sitting there and getting the job done. Also laughable is that the fact that Bronson and Delon and shown spinning dials all the time, but no one is keeping notes as to what combinations were already tried. What; it's all supposed to be kept in their heads, all 10,000 combinations - without them communicating to each other what numbers have already been tried? Chalk me up as math-deficient, but that sounds like a rather random system to crack a safe.

As well, the film is much too vague about the actual relationship between Bronson and Delon, particularly when it comes to their past in the military. Were they friends? Enemies? Lovers? And trust me, I don't say the last one lightly or as a joke. Much of the final section of Honor Among Thieves plays more like some kind of submerged, homoerotic farce (the shirtless safecracking sequence certainly helps there), with Bronson and Delon trying to prove to each other how devoted they are to their criminal code, and to this unexplained, underdeveloped "brotherhood" that now exists between them. If the film had perhaps been more clear about exactly what was going on with their characters, we wouldn't feel so lost during most of the film, trying to feel our way around the characters' inexplicable, strange dynamics. The film's final shots, with Bronson getting his cigarette lit by Delon (theorists should have a field day with that one), resulting in this ultra-weird, almost scary zoom-in shot of Delon screaming Yeeeeeeeaaaaaahhhhhhhhh! can mean about almost anything by this point in Honor Among Thieves. Either Delon is happy that Bronson isn't going to squeal on him, or Delon is finally satisfied that Bronson will be "faithful" to him - whatever that entails. It's fun to theorize about Honor Among Thieves, but frankly, I would have preferred more focused screenwriting.

The DVD:

The Video:
The box lists Honor Among Thieves as 1.66:1, but it looks wider than that; closer to 1.78:1. Anamorphic, the colors are muted, but over all, it's a sharp picture.

The Audio:
The Dolby Digital English mono soundtrack accurately reflects the original theatrical presentation. There's a cool faux-Morricone score by Francois de Roubaix that notches up the nostalgia factor nicely. English and Spanish subtitles are available.

The Extras:
There are no extras for Honor Among Thieves, except a trailer gallery for Lionsgate, which of course, doesn't include an original trailer for the feature film.

Final Thoughts:
Undeniably stylish at times, with a long central safecracking sequence that's quite well done, the 1968 French caper film Honor Among Thieves sports two charismatic performances from Bronson and Delon. However, the diffuse screenplay that hedges its bets on the unfocused relationship between the two thieves doesn't help the already cliched framework, making Honor Among Thieves a hit-and-miss affair. Recommended for fans of this genre and of the stars, others may enjoy a rental.