With Algiers liberated by the French Loyalists, a legionnaire-deserter, hiding out in a small flat with a young woman and her father, is given an assignment: temporarily kidnap a lady lawyer who is arriving from Lyon to defend two Algerian terrorists. For his part in the abduction, he'll be paid enough money to return to France; however, things don't go as planned... Alain Delon, who really does look and act like the French equivalent to James Dean, carries this chatty, intriguing star-crossed lovers drama a long way; he displays the passionate angst and self-centered inner-conflicts (and the physical beauty) of any Hollywood movie star of this era. Still, the late-coming explanation for the deserter's sudden and dramatic change of plan is unsatisfactory; he says he loves the lady lawyer (Lea Massari), though one can see his decision to free her was a plot device just as his declaration of love is a plot function (this guy is only out for himself). Their roles aren't reversed so much as they are exchanged. Incredibly, the lawyer--who is otherwise married to a very understanding man!--doesn't care that loving the doomed deserter would spell her own demise. Is the movie saying that love and desire turns us all into fools? **1/2 from ****