Mussolini's spies, pimps, and tango dancers walk into a 1938 Paris nightclub. No punchline — just bodies.
Paris, 1938. In a lavishly decorated nightclub, couples dance the syncopated rhythms of Latin America: Rumba, Cucaracha, Tango, and also the Charleston, Foxtrot and Boston. Among beautiful women, local pimps and Mussolini's spies brush each other on the dance floor, and in the streets. A police inspector is charged with a difficult task, to clean-up the city streets - just when bodies start falling around, as the Mafia and the spies tend each other deadly traps.
Costume
Sumptuous 1930s nightclub glamour that outclasses the budget.
Acting
Michel Piccoli and Lino Ventura elevate pulp material effortlessly.
Director
Roger Hanin
Roger Hanin
Beppo Manzoni
Michel Piccoli
Damien Malleville
Niels Arestrup
Detaix
Patachou
Meyrals
Lino Ventura
un caïd
Guy Marchand
Ma pomme
Corinne Touzet
Regina Berluzzi
Bruno Pradal
Teddy Malakian
Jean-Pierre Castaldi
Mario Toselli
Sam Karmann
Antoine
Kerstin Birde
Charlotte (as Kirsten Birch)
Sophie Michaud
Vivian Reed
Josephine Baker
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Hanin, a Jewish-Algerian actor-director, cast himself as the romantic lead in his own nostalgic fever dream of pre-war Paris nightlife.
The film's exoticized Latin American numbers reflect France's complicated post-colonial fascination with 'authentic' culture — performed entirely by Europeans.
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