Directed by Claude Pinoteau
Writing credits Jean-Loup Dabadie & Claude Pinoteau
Jean-Loup Dabadie (dialogue)

Cast (in credits order) complete, awaiting verification
Lino Ventura ... Bastien Grimaldi
Lea Massari ... Nelly
Jean Poiret ... Jean Michelis
Roger Planchon ... Commissaire Paillard

Original Music by Vladimir Cosma

Release Date:19 December 1984 (France)
Also Known As (AKA)
A saptea tinta Romania
Seitsem?s uhri Finland
Septième cible, La (undefined)
T?dliche Angst West Germany
The Seventh Target (undefined)

One of France's most beloved character stars from the 1950s through and including the 1980s was the Italian-born Lino Ventura. Born Angiolino Joseph Pascal Ventura to Giovanni Ventura and Luisa Borrini, on July 14, 1919, in Parma (northern) Italy, young Lino moved with his family at a young age to Paris, where he grew up. A school dropout at age eight, Lino drifted from job to job (mechanic's apprentice, etc.), unable to decide on what to do for a living. Marrying in 1942 at age 23, he and wife Odette had three children.

Lino finally found a career calling as a Greek/Roman-styled wrestler and went on to become a professional European champion in 1950. He was forced to abandon this sporting life, however, after incurring a serious injury in the ring. Looking for gangster types for his next film, director Jacques Becker gave the inexperienced 34-year-old his first acting job as bad guy support to star Jean Gabin in the crime thriller Touchez pas au grisbi (1954) [Grisbi]. Gabin was impressed and did more than just encourage Lino to pursue acting as a living. Lino went on to appear with Gabin in several of the star's subsequent movies, often playing a gangster, including Razzia sur la Chnouf (1955) [Razzia], Crime et ch鈚iment (1956), Rouge est mis, Le (1957) [Crime and Punishment] and Maigret tend un pi鑗e (1958) [Inspector Maigret].

A tough, brutish, burly-framed presence, Lino came into his own as a tough-nut character star in the 1960s playing both sides of the moral fence. Adept in both light comedy and dark-edged drama, he appeared in scores of films now considered classic French cinema. His homely, craggy-looking mug took the form of various criminals types as in Deuxi鑝e souffle, Le (1966) [Second Breath] and Bonne ann閑, La (1973) [Happy New Year], as well as dogged, good-guy inspectors in Adieu, poulet (1975) [The French Detective], Cadaveri eccellenti (1976) [Illustrious Corpses'], and Garde ?vue (1981). Lino bore a patented weight-of-the-world-on-his-shoulders countenance that audiences sympathized with, even when playing the arch-villain. Over the course of three decades he built up an impressive gallery of blue-collar protagonists. Not to be missed are his embittered, vengeful husband in Un t閙oin dans la ville (1959) [Witness in the City]; corrupt police chief Tiger Brown in Dreigroschenoper, Die (1962) [The Threepenny Opera]; a WWII French Resistance fighter in Arm閑 des ombres, L' (1969) [Army in the Shadows]; and Mafia boss Vito Genovese in Charles Bronson's The Valachi Papers (1972), among many, many others. Toward the end of his career he played Jean Valjean in a French production of Mis閞ables, Les (1982) for which he received a Cesar award nomination (i.e, the French "Oscar"). He performed practically until the time of his fatal heart attack in 1987 at age 68 in his beloved France. Survivors included his wife of 45 years and children.(See here)

Born on April 13, 1940, in Bucharest, Romania, to the family of a renowned conductor and concert pianist, Cosma studied music from his early years onward, eventually attending the National Conservatory in Bucharest (from which he graduated with two first prizes, for violin and composition). In 1963 he went to Paris to advance his studies at the French Conservatory, where, in addition to his classical background, he developed an interest in jazz, folk music, and film music. Between 1964 and 1967 he toured the world as a concert violinist, visiting the U.S.A., Latin America, and South East Asia. A meeting with popular film composer Michel Legrand became the first step towards his future career. Cosma always mentions Legrand's importance, though he also admits the influence of such composers as Burt Bacharach and Henri Mancini.

In 1967 he began his long-running partnership with film director Yves Robert, for whom he scored the international hits Alexandre le Bienheureux (1967), Le Grand Blond Avec Une Chaussure Noire (1972), and Le Retour du Grand Blond (1974) as well as the critically acclaimed dramas La Gloire de Mon Père and Le Chateau de ma Mère (both in 1990). He also wrote the music for several comedies directed by Francis Veber and Gerard Oury, starring such hit French comedians as Pierre Richard and Louis de Funès. One of his biggest international hits was the Eric Satie-inspired soundtrack for Diva (1981), for which he was awarded his first Cesar (the French equivalent of the Oscar). He received another Cesar for Le Bal (1983) and the main instrumental theme from it became a substantial hit worldwide. Among the other awards given to Vladimir Cosma are the Sept d'Or, the French TV award, for L' été '36 (1986) and a Cannes Film Festival award for the entire body of his work. ~ Yuri German, All Movie Guide (See here)