Unlike Dassin's previous film Night and the City, Rififi is a crime movie and not a film noir. It has many noir elements that work in synchrony so well, but what makes this movie stand out is its 30 minute long heist scene with neither dialogue nor music. It is 30 minutes of pure, nail-biting tension. This single scene inspired all future heist scenes. The cinematography and editing was miles ahead of Night and the City, thankfully. The characters were fascinatingly unique. Dassin has somehow perfected the art of cinematic finales. He has complete control over you; you can't blink or turn away for a second.There really aren't that many negatives. Personally I liked Night and the City more, but that is probably just because film noir is my favorite genre. Some characters were left behind and ignored. Some background stories were alluded to but never fleshed out, which just made it confusing. But seriously, these are extremely small qualms. If you add the attention-grabbing introduction to the thrilling heist scene and the captivating finale, what you have is a movie that is impossible to lose interest in from start to finish.
IMDb link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0048021/