It is often considered both a film noir and a precursor to the French New Wave, the latter because of its use of handheld camera and a single jump cut.

A former bank robber and convict, he has mostly kept out of trouble for the past 20 years, and is even friends with a police commissioner, Ledru, whose life he once saved.

Ever the gentleman, Bob lets Anne, an attractive young woman who has just lost her job, stay in his apartment in order to keep her from the attentions of Marc, a pimp he hates.

As Bob has had a run of bad luck, he plans to rob the safe, convincing a man named McKimmie to finance the preparations and recruiting a team to carry out the heist.

Jean gets detailed floor plans of the casino and the specifications of the safe, and buys a bracelet for his wife, Suzanne, with some of the money he is paid for his services.

Meanwhile, Suzanne discovers where her husband got the money to buy the bracelet and decides to ask Bob for a larger share of the take.

He has an incredible run of good luck, first at roulette, then at chemin de fer, and loses track of the time.

They eventually split ways due to creative differences but Melville once said of Decaë "exactly shar[ed] my tastes for all things cinema.

[5] Vincent Canby, writing for The New York Times in 1981, noted that "Melville's affection for American gangster movies may have never been as engagingly and wittily demonstrated as in Bob le Flambeur, which was only the director's fourth film, made before he had access to the bigger budgets and the bigger stars (Jean-Paul Belmondo, Alain Delon) of his later pictures.

The New Wave was a product of the French reimagining of American cinema, and Melville's contributions provided significant inspiration for this innovative and revolutionary approach to filmmaking, which included the use of location shooting, the handheld camera, and the jump cut.

This is a testament to the lasting influence of Melville's pioneering contributions on the evolving landscape of cinema during the New Wave era.

[8] On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 97%, based on 30 reviews, with an average rating of 8.1/10; the website's critical consensus reads: "Majorly stylish, Bob le Flambeur is a cool homage to American gangster films and the presage to French New Wave mode of seeing.