Plot

A gangster escapes jail and quickly makes plans to continue his criminal ways elsewhere, but a determined inspector is closing in.

Gustave Minda, better known as Gu, a dangerous gangster, escapes from jail. He goes to Paris to join Manouche and other friends, and get involved in a gangland killing. Before leaving the country with Manouche, Gu needs a final job to get some money. But that's not so simple when you have Inspector Blot tracking you, and have to deal with the consequences of the shooting in Paris...—Yepok

Three prisoners break from the prison and the notorious Gustave 'Gu' Minda is the only one that survives. He heads to Paris where he meets his lover Manouche and his friend and Manouche's bodyguard Alban that take him to a hideout. Meanwhile the smart Commissary Blot is investigating a shooting plotted by the mobster Jo Ricci and the gangster Jacques the Lawyer who is murdered. Gu decides to travel to Italy but he is short of money; his friend Orloff invites him to participate in the heist of an armored truck with his friend Paul Ricci and the gangsters Antoine and Pascal in Marseille. The talkative Inspector Fardiano is responsible for the investigation, but the persistent Commissary Blot believes that Gu is behind the scheme.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

With restraint and ruthless attention to detail, Jean-Pierre Melville follows the parallel tracks of French underworld criminal Gu, escaped from prison and roped into one last gig, and the suave inspector relentlessly seeking him. Le deuxième souffle captures the pathos, loneliness, excitement, and suspense of a life in the shadows, and contains one of the most thrilling heists Melville ever shot.

With his customary restraint and ruthless attention to detail, director Jean-Pierre Melville follows the parallel tracks of French underworld criminal Gu (the inimitable Lino Ventura), escaped from prison and roped into one last robbery, and the suave inspector, Blot (Paul Meurisse), relentlessly seeking him. The implosive Le deuxième souffle captures the pathos, loneliness, and excitement of a life in the shadows with methodical suspense and harrowing authenticity, and contains one of the most thrilling heist sequences Melville ever shot.

Old-time gangster Gustave 'Gu' Minda (Lino Ventura) escapes from prison and heads back to collect cash from some old associates and on to a better life. After a shoot out in her restaurant that has been set up from gangster money, Manouche (Christine Fabrega) receives a visit from two gangsters working for a competitior Ricci (Marcel Bozzuffi) but Gu intervenes and kells them and rekindles his relationship with Manouche who agrees to help him escape Paris. Aware of Gus prison escape and suspicious that he has killed the two gangsters, Inspector Blot (Paul Meurisse) makes it be known that he is tracking down the criminal. Meanwhile gangster Orloff (Pierre Zimmer) pulls Gu into a robbery of gold for 200 million francs but when Inspector Blot captures Gu and through trickery make it appear that he squeals on his gangster associates, everyone goes gunning for the older criminal who only wants to retire to Miami.