Let’s Not Get Angry 1966

Antoine Beretto, a.k.a. “Tonio” Lino Ventura is a former gangster who has rebuilt his life running a boat rental, waterskiing, and diving school in Collioure. Two former accomplices, now hunted by the anti-gang brigade, visit him seeking a loan and a sea escape to Italy. He reluctantly agrees and advances them four million (40,000 new francs).

To secure repayment, the two crooks name Léonard Michalon, Jean Lefebvre a swindler who has vanished with the money from a bet at the Cagnes-sur-Mer racecourse. Michalon is a crooked bookmaker who conducts clandestine bets with promises of huge winnings, but in truth runs off with the cash. Antoine meets Michalon through a friend, Jeff, Michel Constantin who warns him that Michalon is a coward and a traitor—parasite who lives by swindling others for petty gains. He’s not worth the effort and is more likely to cause trouble than to solve it.

Once found, Michalon proves to be exactly as Jeff described: passive, whiny, fishy, disloyal and insolvent. But a far more perilous threat looms: the eccentric gang led by the mysterious “Colonel” McLean, a British subject who suspects Michalon of knowing about plans to hold up a huge gold convoy and seems determined to kill him. Tommy Duggan plays Colonel McLean, a figure whose relentless pursuit casts a shadow over everyone involved.

Antoine and Jeff must marshal all their experience and wits to protect Léonard Michalon from the Colonel’s destructive ambitions, navigating a web of old loyalties, new debts, and the ever-present danger of violence on the seas. The tale threads together risk, deception, and precarious alliances as the chase unfolds across coastlines and casinos, forcing a reluctant reunion of former criminals who know how quickly a simple loan can spiral into a life-or-death ordeal.