Three Men to Kill

Trois hommes à abattre Three Men to Kill
Directed by	Jacques Deray
Produced by	Alain Delon
Written by	Jean-Patrick Manchette (novel) Jacques Deray Alain Delon Christopher Franck
Starring	Alain Delon Dalila Di Lazzaro
Music by	Claude Bolling
Cinematography	Jean Tournier
Production company	Antenne-2 Adel Productions Union Générale Cinématographique (UGC)
Release date	31 October 1980
Running time	95 minutes
Country	France
Language	French
Box office	$16.5 million

Trois hommes à abattre (English: Three Men to Kill) is a French crime film released in 1980, directed by Jacques Deray, starring Alain Delon with Dalila Di Lazzaro. The screenplay is written by Jacques Deray, Alain Delon and Christopher Franck based on the novel by Jean-Patrick Manchette.

The story is about Michel Gerfaut (Delon), charming professional card player who out of nowhere becomes involved in some retribution between weapon traders of high level.

The movie was a great boxoffice success.Three Men to Kill is the first film of a group of popular movies released in the 1980s and starring Alain Delon, which share a visual and narrative style, followed by For a Cop's Hide (1981) and Le battant (1983).

Michel Gerfaut (Alain Delon) is a handsome middle-aged man who lives in Paris, France. He has a beautiful girlfriend and works as a professional poker player. One night, as he is on his way to yet another card game, he comes across a car accident. Noticing that the driver of the crashed car is still alive, he brings him to the hospital. A newspaper article later reveals that the man, who was actually a high-ranking functionary, has died, and that two of his colleagues were killed the same night (the titular three men to kill). The men were assassinated as they were about to blow the whistle on a deal involving faulty guided missiles.

Gerfaut is followed by two hitmen who saw him at the crash site and mistakenly assumed that he is a mercenary hired by other armament manufacturers to sabotage the deal. After several attempts on the lives of him and his girlfriend are made, Gerfaut flees and follows a series of clues that eventually lead him to the head of the conspiracy, an arms dealer named Emmerich. Emmerich doesn't believe Gerfaut's claims of innocence and becomes furious, causing himself a fatal heart attack. Emmerich's assistant then offers Gerfaut a job as his enforcer, but Gerfaut refuses and walks away, believing everything to be over.