The Vultures

April 1943. Tunisia, occupied by the Germans, is ravaged with warfare. A column of the Foreign Legion enters El Ksour, a city on the coast. Its mission is to retrieve six billion francs worth of gold ingots from the bank and convoy them to Sfax. But the enemy is waiting and when dawn strikes in the dead city, there are only a few French survivors—four “Morfalous,” or “Vultures.” The mission continues. But when Sergeant Augagneur (screen legend Jean-Paul Belmondo) feasts his eyes on the safe in the vault of the bank, he starts dreaming and scheming… Four survivors, six billion: one billion and a half each. Director Henri Verneuil (The Body of My Enemy) strikes gold with this French Kelly’s Heroes riff, with Belmondo (Le Professionnel) in peak wise-cracking, bone-cracking form. Sweepingly shot on location in Tunisia, The Vultures (a.k.a. Les Morfalous) also features the rugged Michel Constantin (La Scoumoune), dazzling Marie Laforêt (Cop or Hood) and an epic soundtrack by Georges Delerue (That Man from Rio).