“Classe tous risques” is one of the greatest French films made before 1960, but almost nobody has heard of it. Made at the same time as films like Godard’s “Breathless” and Truffaut’s “Shoot the Piano Player,” Claude Sautet’s somber, powerful thriller doesn’t indulge in boyish fervor or narrative deconstructionism.

Conventional cinematic wisdom has it that films made in France at that time were a stale morass of period pictures and high-minded dramas until the New Wave brought a youthful jolt of joie de vivre. But this easy formulation marginalizes films from the time that neither fit within the status quo nor the youthful vanguard. Witness the sad fortunes of “Classe tous risques” (1960). That could change with Film Forum’s release of this new print, finally subtitled in English. (It was released stateside briefly in a dubbed version, titled “The Big Risk,” and hasn’t been seen since.)

“Classe” begins in Milan, where Abel Davos (Lino Ventura), a gruff, weathered French criminal, parts with his wife and kids, planning to meet them later. Broke after fleeing across Europe for years, Abel decides to risk a return to France. With his best friend, Raymond Naldi (Stan Krol), he robs two bank couriers. A bravura ensues, a nearly dialogue-free 30-minute sequence of Naldi and Davos’s elaborate escape – involving motorcycles, cars, buses, and boats – all in an effort to meet up with Abel’s family in the border town of Ventimiglia and sneak back into France.

Jose Giovanni, the French ex-con whose authentic novels of the underworld drew on his former life as a hood, wrote the novel on which “Classe” is based. His central theme of honor among thieves has worked itself into the fibers of Sautet’s treatment – not just in this opening sequence.

At its most basic level, “Classe tous risques” is a movie about a crook whose feelings get hurt. The sequence of Davos and Naldi’s escape works because of a carefully established bond between the two criminals. Once he reenters France, Davos expects his old gang to exhibit a loyalty similar to Naldi’s. He’s mistaken, however; his pals have either gone legit, become too big, or gotten too hot to hook up with him. Instead, they send an unknown driver named Eric Stark (Jean-Paul Belmondo, that face familiar from so many New Wave classics) to haul him and his kids off inside a tricked-out ambulance.

Stark and Davos’s relationship will turn out to be a beautiful one; indeed, it will serve to underline the sense of betrayal Davos feels from his friends, some of whom owe their lives to him. Though the film will give us some flashes of violence toward the end, it’s to Sautet’s credit that he keeps the focus primarily on his central character’s feelings: As Davos seethes, the tension mounts. What begins as a high-speed chase movie becomes progressively more internal, leading to a surprising and sad finale.

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