by Hal Erickson
synopsis
Bernard Blier plays a gendarme and Philipe Nicaud co-stars as Blier's bartender buddy in En Legitime Defense. When Nicaud murders a gangster in self-defense, he runs off in a blind panic. Blier endeavors to convince Nicaud to turn himself over to the authorities, and at the same time struggles to save his pal from mob retaliation. Like many French crime melodramas of the late 1950s, En Legitime Defense is heavily influenced by Hollywood's film noir genre of the 1940s. The film was atmospherically lensed on location in the less-than-fashionable Pigalle district.
