The Criminal and the Lady (1963)

Strong and Moving!

I like Black Panther, but I didn't like this movie.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

First of all, I watched it in Polish, which I don't understand well, so my comprehension of the dialogue is about 50%. I don't know if it's ever had subtitles in another language. However, the opening scenes don't require knowledge of any language, and are what hooked me: the robbery scene is very atmospheric and shockingly violent. This is a clever and entertaining thriller about a plain-Jane bank clerk who, after surviving an incredibly vicious cash-transport robbery (the driver and police escort are machine-gunned to death, and she is left for dead in the back seat, unconscious), is chosen to get all dolled-up in a Hollywood-worthy makeover, and attend a swanky resort where the robber/killer is suspected to be. Oh, and she's accompanied by a handsome heartthrob undercover cop posing as her brother. That's the kind of funny part, as my language skills are such that I had trouble figuring out what exactly was going on, and I had to rewind a couple of times to realize it was the same actress! She was almost unrecognizable. It's fun material, although the violence is really tough, which may or not be a plus for some viewers. Very much worth watching. It's one of those 'small' movies that seem to kind of get lost, and it deserves a much better fate than that.

"Zbrodniarz i panna" is a good and very entertaining crime story. A modest and plain young woman, Małgorzata Makowska, leads a very boring life as a cashier. One day a robber riddles her bank car with bullets, kills driver and two security guards and takes the money. The police finds out that the stolen banknotes are being spent at a fashionable spa resort. The only way to find the criminal is to favour Małgorzata with a seaside holiday in the company of a handsome Captain (Zbigniew Cybulski) as her "brother"...The story-writer "Joe Alex" (his real name is Maciej Słomczyński) published the novel on which this movie is based, as Kazimierz Kwaśniewski. Well, this is not actually a spoiler, but in other Kwaśniewski novels Małgorzata and Captain Ziętek are husband and wife! The Russian title for this movie is "Девушка из банка" (The Girl from the Bank).