A professional poker player happens upon a badly injured man in a crashed car and takes him to the hospital, not knowing that the unfortunate gent had been the victim of an assassination attempt. The killers suspect that the dying man must have given out some incriminating information about them and their government employers and set out to make the gambler their next target.Like a few other French thrillers before it, this film certainly owes some debt to Alfred Hitchcock with its story of an innocent man thrust into the middle of a dangerous situation where criminals try to hunt him down and kill him. It's not the most original of story-lines but this fast-paced film remains an enjoyable watch. There is enough action and incident punctuated through its run-time to ensure it never gets boring, such as an exciting car chase through the streets of Paris, a keyhole assassination, an attempted drowning on a crowded beach and a little bit of nudity courtesy of Italian actress Dalila Di Lazzaro who will be familiar to Euro genre fans for her roles in cult items such as Phenomena (1985). But it's really Alain Delon's movie ultimately. The role probably doesn't stretch him too much but he is quite a cool actor and holds things together pretty well I thought. On the whole, I found this to be a very enjoyable movie; it may not have brought anything especially new to the table but it did the job well enough for me.

Talking to a DVD seller about French cinema,I found out that he has recently picked up some titles starring Alain Delon.With having heard of Delon for years,I decided to join him in tracking down the 3 men to kill.The plot:Driving to his weekly poker game, Michel Gerfaut finds a man,lying in a car covered in blood.Rushing him to the hospital, Gerfaut discovers that it was all too late.Wondering about why that man was killed, Gerfaut gets caught in the cross fire and becomes a target for the killer.Due to the mysterious man selling faulty missiles. (next time try before you buy!) his former buyers set off a missile at Gerfaut.View on the film:Opening with a missile blasting on the screen,co-writer/(along with Christopher Frank and actor Delon) director Jacques Deray & cinematographer Jean Tournier smudge the movie in 80's cream. Heating the action scenes up in splatters of burning crimson,Deray digs into the early days of the decade with chic stylization,by painting the streets and Gerfaut's slick clothes in pristine white which give the wacky car chases and gun fights a real pop.Spun from Jean-Patrick Manchette's novel,the screenplay by Deray/Frank and Delon sadly lacks the over exaggerated sparks of the directing style,due to largely keeping most of the plot vague and confused,until a sharp Film Noir twist gives the flick the desired bite.Joined by a sweet Dalila Di Lazzaro (who also appears topless) Delon gives a good performance as Gerfaut,with Delon taking advantage of his chiseled looks to cast Gerfaut in a rebellious atmosphere,as Gerfaut tries to avoid the 3 men to kill.

Alan Delon plays a Good Samaritan in "Borsalino" director Jacques Deray's thriller "Trois hommes à abattre" who finds himself up to his ears in hot water for his good deed. In a sense, Delon is an innocent bystander who has done nothing wrong but finds himself the object of a man hunt. This film contains some nudity. Otherwise, it is no great shakes with minimal suspense and tension. Gambler Michel Gerfaut is cruising to a nocturnal poker game when he wheels up onto an auto accident and finds a survivor. He takes the crash victim to the hospital, but he doesn't stick around long enough for the hospital to get his name. The doomed man and two other men are gunned down by assassins and the assassins go after our hero because he might have heard something that the dying man said. Guess what? Gerfaut didn't hear anything. Nevertheless, the assassins aren't inclined to let loose ends dangle. They struggle to drown him in the ocean and try to lure him into a phone booth. Eventually, our paranoid protagonist consults an old friend who is a police inspector. The police inspector checks out his apartment. Our hero discovers that two men had been looking for him from his landlord. Not long afterward, somebody knocks at Gerfaut's door but the inspector answers it. The assassin on the other side of the door fires his silenced automatic pistol through the peep hole in the door. When they see our hero exit the building, they realize that they haven't knocked off the right man. A careening car chase ensues and Gerfaut has a shoot out with them. The authorities believe that Gerfaut may have shot the inspector. Meantime, our hero's girlfriend has a close call when she encounters one of her friend's assassins. Eventually, the man who wants Gerfaut killed requests that he come unarmed to his residence. The man is so sure that Gerfaut had a conversation with the dead man that he reacts with incredulity that Gerfaut didn't hear anything. Ironically, the engineer dies, and Gerfaut leaves. Veteran stunt driver Remy Julienne staged the chase sequence. Altogether, "Trois hommes à abattre" is a routine thriller with at least on usage of the F-bomb.

Unlike many of his other crime movies that he made during the '70s and '80s,Three Men to Kill is an interesting, suspenseful and thrilling film.Atmospheric and quite violent, it benefits from a quite intelligent script (it is the adaptation of a book) and from Dalila Di Lazzaro's charming youth and freshness.Dalila shows her tits several times during the first part of Three Men to Kill (in bed;at the beach;in the shower)--it's a treat,like any nudity coming from Dalila.Jacques Deray made several films with Delon;this one has to be the best of them.(The Swimming Pool ,Borsalino (1970),Borsalino & Co. (1974) ,Flic Story (1975),The Gang are the others.)It may be concluded that Delon made his bad movies with José Pinheiro and José Giovanni--for that is the worst slapdash of his uneven movie career;and his better thrillers with Jacques Deray.Three Men to Kill is suspenseful,well-paced,paranoiac and it has even some moments of almost Bronsonian violence.So,it's what the delicate persons would call a piece of sleaze!Recommended movie.Delon's role here is atypical, as it doesn't illustrate anymore his famous narcissism ;Gerfaut is violent and virile, but it's not one of the risible superhuman heroes from some of the rubbish that Delon did in the '80s. Also Delon's performance is understated, in a commendable way.When I began reading comments on IMDb, I was expecting to find Delon adulated as a cult—actor; on the contrary, he seems to be more known than respected (on different artistic levels, Brando and De Niro are in the same situation—very famous, but not very respected).If you're looking for something as banal and clumsy and insipid as Delon's bad movies about cops from the '80s, then the suspense in 3 Men … will appear as deftly managed. It's good; the European look is surely adequate.