Farewell, Friend [Adieu l’ami] ** (1968, Alain Delon, Charles Bronson, Brigitte Fossey) – Classic Movie Review 13,679

Alain Delon and Charles Bronson star in the 1968 French crime thriller film Farewell, Friend [Adieu l’ami] as Foreign Legion veterans reluctantly involved together in a Paris safe heist.

Alain Delon and Charles Bronson star in director Jean Herman’s 1968 French-Italian crime thriller film Farewell, Friend [Adieu l’ami] as former French Foreign Legion veterans Dino Barran and Franz Propp, involved together in a heist.

French and English language versions of the film were released, both dubbed unfortunately. The film was a massive hit in France, and helped to turn Bronson into a big star in Europe. American distributor Paramount still was not impressed and did not release the film in the US until 1973.

French legionnaire veterans Franz Propp and army doctor Dino Barran reluctantly work together to crack a safe in a corporation’s vault, but discover that they are being set up to take the fall for a robbery-and-murder plot.

The mercenary Franz Propp and the army doctor Dino Barran are demobilised after the war in Algeria and meet again by coincidence but Dino refuses Franz’s offer to join him to go to the Congo, so a curious, suspicious Propp starts following him around. The doctor has promised a friend, the beautiful Isabelle Moreau (Olga Georges-Picot), to return a huge amount of missing bearer bonds, which involves him breaking into a Paris company’s safe over a Christmas weekend. She gets him a job in the firm, with an attractive called Dominique Austerlitz (Brigitte Fossey).

When he hides in a corporation’s office building, Dino is followed by the mercenary Propp, who is planning to steal the contents of the safe. Locked together inside the building, they reluctantly agree to co-operate to crack the safe. Soon, Inspector Antoine Méloutis (Bernard Fresson) is sniffing around.

Farewell, Friend is fairly amusing as a caper thriller, but a bit slack and overlong, and the dubbing is a problem, spoiling the banter between the two stars, who are nevertheless good together.

Both dubbed French language and English language versions of the film were released. But neither version is very satisfactory. In the French version, Bronson’s voice is deliberately dubbed with a very strong American accent by director John Berry, which is very off-putting, though there is still effective chemistry between him and Delon. Delon and Bronson dubbed their own English in the English language version, though it is none too great either.

The screenplay is by Sébastien Japrisot.

It is shot in France, mainly in the studio at Franstudios, Saint Maurice, France, with some location shooting in Paris, in Marseilles and at Orly Airport.

It was reissued as Honor Among Thieves.

Delon liked Bronson in Machine-Gun Kelly (1958) and got the producer Serge Silberman to approach him to co-star when Bronson was in Europe making Villa Rides (1968), though apparently Delon originally wanted Richard Widmark as his co-star.

Delon and Bronson went on to star together in Red Sun (1971).

© Derek Winnert 2025 – Classic Movie Review 13,679

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