Deux hommes dans la ville a.k.a Two Men in Town (1973) is directed by real-life convicted felon Jose Giovanni. A Corsican with a formidable past Jose Giovanni is perhaps best known for his brilliant screenplay for the prison drama Le Trou (1960) which in 1961 received the prestigious Critics Award granted yearly by the French Syndicate of Cinema Critics. Completed thirteen years after the premiere of Le Trou, Jose Giovanni's Two Men in Town is very much a story influenced by the director's unfortunate struggle with French law.

Brilliantly structured Two Men in Town evokes comparisons with some of the classic French criminal dramas where the story and actions of the main protagonists are gently introduced by a narrator. Furthermore, the presence of two of France's greatest actors ever Alain Delon (Le Samourai) and especially Jean Gabin (French Cancan) certainly elevates this production to another level. Surprisingly even an extremely young Gerard Depardieu appears as a local mafioso attempting to get Gino back on track into his pre-sentence occupation.

The depth of the message which Two Men in Town delivers is by all means quite surprising as obviously Jose Giovanni wanted to leave a memorable impression on those who see his film. He succeeds quite well. For example, the vivid depiction of the prison guillotine and final moments of those who face it are truly staggering. I think that there is a heavy dose of disappointment in the system as well as bitter anger which one could sense in Two Men in Town. This is a very personal film that somehow manages to deliver a universal message supporting the belief that every man deserves a second chance in life.

Two Men in Town is also memorable for the fact that it was the last on-screen collaboration between Jean Gabin and Alain Delon. After the brilliant Le Clan des Siciliens a.k.a The Sicilian Clan (1969) directed by Henri Verneuil Two Men in Town came as quite a surprise for many as contrary to what the public expected the film ended a remarkable collaboration between two actors that created some of the most memorable gangster films in French cinema.

How Does the Film Look? Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.66:1 and being enhanced for widescreen TV's the transfer of this Kino release is a disaster of paramount proportions. It seems like Kino have acquired the rights for the recently released in France anthology of Alain Delon films and they have decided simply to port the existing PAL masters. As a result what we get is a DVD image quality that suffers from almost every known conversion issue you might think of. There is heavy "ghosting" that nearly destroys the viewing experience. In fact, due to unknown for me reason the "ghosting" is so exacerbated I don't recall the last time I have seen such a poor transfer (I think one must go all the way back to the dreadful release of the SE of Polanski's The Pianist that was released in Canada). Regardless, I am rather disappointed as you could see that Kino have decided to do such a poor job especially given the fact that it seems very likely that The Sicilian Clan will appear as part of their Alain Delon collection. Unless, they immediately recall these discs and replace them with proper correctly mastered transfers avoid this title like the plague (including the rest of the Alain Delon collection discs).

How Does the DVD Sound? Presented in its original French Dolby Digital Mono audio track with optional English subtitles the film sounds just fine. I did not detect any major issues but really what's the point of having a decent audio presentation when the transfer is practically unwatchable.

Extras: The following extras are present on this DVD:

Trailer-

Stills Gallery-

Alain Delon Selected Filmography-

The Alain Delon Collection (ten film trailers including an English-dibbed trailer for the Sicilian Clan)-

Final Words: Two Men in Town's presentation might very well be one of my biggest disappointments this year in terms of video quality. I was looking forward to the entire Alain Delon collection and was hoping that if the picture quality of these discs was not up to the standards set by the French Pathe releases they will be at least presented in decent proper anamorphic transfers. Don't even think about buying Two Men in Town or any of the Alain Delon upcoming titles. The disc(s) are not worth it, period!!! These are some of the best French classic gangster films (including the upcoming Borsalino and Co., The Sicilian Clan, etc.,) and it is a shame that they are being bastardized with such poor PAL-NTSC transfers. For what is worth I recommend that you pick the French collection of Alain Delon films if you happen to be even partially fluent in French (as the films are not English-friendly). Until someone at Kino wakes up and realizes that all of these films actually deserve better. Especially when you have beautifully restored prints readily available from the French distribs. SKIP IT (read: avoid like the plague).