Movies like Coup de Torchon (1981)
The best movies like Coup de Torchon (1981) are Detective (1985), So Long, Stooge (1983) and Le Samouraï (1967). If Coup de Torchon hooked you with its comedy and crime, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedLe Trou (1960)8.2/10 from 614 votes
- NewestBazaar (Murder in the Building) (2026)Released 2026
- In FrenchDetective (1985)Also in French
Detective (1985)
Emile Chenal and his wife, Françoise, leaned on boxing manager Jim Fox Warner to cough up the considerable sum of money that he owes them, with both the police and the mob circling the situation. In the same hotel, Inspector Neveu looks into a murder that took place years before, and his storyline overlaps with the arc of the Chenals.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & crime
SnoozefestMovies like thisSo Long, Stooge (1983)
In the 18th Arrondissement of Paris, Lambert, an aloof garage manager working the night shift at a petrol station spends his time drinking on the job, content in his own company. One night, Bensoussan, a small-time drug pusher in dire straits falls in on a stolen moped pretending to need a spark plug. The two men develop an unlikely friendship.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLe Samouraï (1967)
After carrying out a flawlessly planned hit, Jef Costello, a contract killer with samurai instincts, finds himself caught between a persistent police investigator and a ruthless employer, and not even his armor of fedora and trench coat can protect him.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz (1955)
A bizarre black comedy about a man whose overwhelming ambition in life is to be a renowned serial killer of women, and will stop at nothing to achieve it - but not everything goes according to plan...
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Big Pardon (1982)
The Bettoun clan: Raymond (the patriarch), Maurice (the son), Jacky (the nephew), Roland (the nephew), Albert (Raymond's cousin), Pépé (Raymond's friend), Samy (the bodyguard) are a family clan of Jewish Blackfoot kingpins of French organized crime. Their activities include running casinos, organizing underground boxing matches, illegal gambling, pimping, racketeering and bloody settlements of scores against other Arab and French clans. But in the shadows, Pascal Villars has sworn the loss of the Bettoun. He will succeed in setting the Arab clan against the Jewish clan, for the great benefit of the police commissioner Duché, who has been trying in vain for ten years to bring down the Bettouns.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCop or Hood (1979)
When the local police inspector was found dead in a prostitute's house, police division commissioner Stan Borowitz is sent to investigate the situation. Posing as the prostitute's long-lost brother "Antonio Cerruti," he discovers a mare's nest of police corruption. In fact, in this comedy thriller the whole town is corrupt. If they were closely examined, Stan's methods for pursuing this investigation might embarrass the police. For instance, he drives into a criminal's house in a fancy, expensive race car. In another incident, he callously blows up a casino owned by Musard , one of the town's crime bosses. On that occasion, he first forces Musard to remove his clothes, and the poor criminal watches his casino explode from across the square while standing naked in a phone booth. Meanwhile, Stan seduces the lovely Edmonde.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLove Is My Profession (1958)
Leading lawyer Andre Gobillot takes the case of Yvette, a young criminal. As he works on her defence, an unexpected romance blooms between them, only to be cut short by a tragedy.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPlaying with Fire (1975)
A banker hires a seedy detective to find his daughter and keep her safe from kidnappers.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
The Watchmaker of St. Paul (1974)
Michel Descombes is a watchmaker who lives in Lyon with his teenage son Bernard. When the police visit and inform him that Bernard has killed a man and is on the run with a girl, Michel realises that he knew far less about his son than he thought.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe American Friend (1977)
Tom Ripley, an American who deals in forged art, is slighted at an auction in Hamburg by picture framer Jonathan Zimmerman. When Ripley is asked by gangster Raoul Minot to kill a rival, he suggests Zimmerman, and the two, exploiting Zimmerman's terminal illness, coerce him into being a hitman.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisL'Argent (1983)
A forged 500-franc note is passed from person to person and shop to shop, until it falls into the hands of a genuine innocent who doesn't see it for what it is—which will have devastating consequences on his life.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Little Thief (1988)
In a small town in post-WWII France, 16-year-old Janine tries to improve her conditions by any means necessary. Three people—Michel, a married lover; Raoul, a fellow thief; Mauricette, a photographer she meets in prison—will help her learn from her mistakes.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisShoot the Piano Player (1960)
Charlie is a former classical pianist who has changed his name and now plays jazz in a grimy Paris bar. When Charlie's brothers, Richard and Chico, surface and ask for Charlie's help while on the run from gangsters they have scammed, he aids their escape. Soon Charlie and Lena, a waitress at the same bar, face trouble when the gangsters arrive, looking for his brothers.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTwo Men in Town (1973)
A former bank robber is released after 10 years in prison. He gets help from a social-worker, but gets harassed by an old cop from his past.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBazaar (Murder in the Building) (2026)
Misanthropic novelist François writes gripping crime stories – “Agatha Christie meets The Scarlet Pimpernel” – but outside of the swashbuckling imaginary world of his Marquis la Rose-novels, life is far from thrilling. His partner Colette, a professor at the Sorbonne and world-renowned expert on Alfred Hitchcock, is tired of watching François sit around their apartment in his pyjamas and yearns for the excitement of the classic films she watches with her students. When Colette begins to suspect their flamboyant actor neighbour of murdering his wife, the couple’s mundane lives are turned upside down – and their stale relationship is jolted back to life.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPolice (1985)
Mangin, a police inspector in Paris, leans hard on informants to get evidence on three Tunisian brothers who traffic in drugs. He arrests one, Simon, and his girl-friend Noria. Simon's brothers go to their lawyer. He springs Noria, who promptly steals 2 million francs that belong to the Tunisians. They suspect her of the theft; her life as well as the lawyer's is in danger. Meanwhile, Noria is playing with both the lawyer and Mangin's affections. Mangin is mercurial anyway: intimidating and bloodying suspects, falling for a police commission trainee before flipping for Noria, wearing his emotions on his sleeve. Can he save the lawyer and Noria, and can he convince her to love?
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDiva (1981)
Jules, a young Parisian postman, secretly records a concert performance given by the opera singer Cynthia Hawkins, whom he idolises. The following day, Jules runs into a woman who is being pursued by armed thugs. Before she is killed, the woman slips an audio cassette into his mail bag...
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe French Detective (1975)
When political thugs murder an opponent's volunteer and also kill a cop, chief inspector Verjeat believes the politician who hired them is as guilty as the murderous goon. Verjeat's pursuit of the councilman, Lardatte, gets him a warning from his superiors. When he embarrasses Lardatte while disarming a hostage (the dead volunteer's father), Verjeat is told he's being transferred within a week. He speeds up his hunt for the goon and, with Lefévre, one of his young detectives, he engineers a complicated scheme to buy more time before the transfer. How should Verjeat play out his values of honor and duty?
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMénage (1986)
A bisexual petty criminal named Bob encounters a married couple arguing in a bar. Bob breaks up the fight and proceeds to seduce first the wife and then the husband. Then Bob teaches the couple how to be burglars and they join him in his criminal exploits.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLast Known Address (1970)
Marceau Léonetti, a competent and energetic officer stops by chance the son of an influential lawyer driving under the influence of alcohol. A few months later, the lawyer falsely accuses Léonetti as being violent and incompetent. As a result Marceau is transferred to a small police station, where he meets young and beautiful Jeanne. Soon they are faced with a tough investigation.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisElevator to the Gallows (1958)
A self-assured businessman murders his employer, husband of his mistress, which unintentionally provokes an ill-fated chain of events.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPolice Python 357 (1976)
A methodical police inspector becomes entangled in a web of deceit after a murder investigation reveals disturbing connections to his own department. As suspicion tightens around him, he must outwit both the killer and the system to survive.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisConfidentially Yours (1983)
After he's implicated in several murders, a real estate agent goes on the lam while his intrepid secretary does some private investigating of her own to locate the killer.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBorsalino (1970)
In 1930s Marseilles two small-time crooks decide to join forces when they meet while brawling over a woman. Starting with fixed horse races and boxing matches, they soon find themselves doing jobs for the local gangster bosses. When they decide to go into the business for themselves, their easy-going approach to crime starts to change.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLe Trou (1960)
Four prison inmates have been hatching a plan to literally dig out of jail when another prisoner, Claude Gaspard, is moved into their cell. They take a risk and share their plan with the newcomer. Over the course of three days, the prisoners and friends break through the concrete floor using a bed post and begin to make their way through the sewer system – yet their escape is anything but assured.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisMonsieur Hire (1989)
A French man spies on a lovely younger woman across the way. When he's spotted by the woman shortly after being questioned by the police about a local murder, the man's simple life becomes more complicated.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSerie Noire (1979)
In the shadowy outskirts of Paris, a desperate door-to-door salesman crosses paths with a mysterious young woman trapped in a grim world. As his obsession deepens, his grip on reality begins to slip—and the line between escape and destruction starts to blur.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPoison (1951)
Paul Braconnier and his wife Blandine only have one thing in mind: to find a way to kill each other without risk. After listening to a radio show, Paul decides to go to Paris to meet a famous lawyer in the acquittal of the murderers. He tells the lawyer that he killed his wife. The lawyer asks Paul to reconstruct the circumstances of the drama. Without knowing it, he explains, in spite of himself, the way for Paul to murder his wife by putting the odds on his side to avoid death penalty or even be released...
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMade in U.S.A (1967)
Paula Nelson goes to Atlantic City to meet her lover, Richard Politzer, but finds him dead and decides to investigate his death. In her hotel room, she meets Typhus, whom she ends up knocking out. His corpse is later found in the apartment of David Goodis, a writer. Paula is arrested and interrogated. From then on, she encounters many gangsters.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFemmes Fatales (1976)
Two men, fortyish, worn out by their wives, abandon everything to go and live in the back of beyond. There they meet a truculent priest, a boozer, Émile who recalls them to life's simple pleasures. Calm is what they want. But soon their example inspires thousands of disorientated males...
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Coup de Torchon?
The closest matches to Coup de Torchon are Detective (1985), So Long, Stooge (1983) and Le Samouraï (1967). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Coup de Torchon?
People who watched Coup de Torchon most often go on to Detective (1985), So Long, Stooge (1983) and Le Samouraï (1967).
What is the highest-rated movie like Coup de Torchon?
Le Trou (1960), rated 8.2/10 by 614 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Coup de Torchon?
Bazaar (Murder in the Building) (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there French movies like Coup de Torchon?
Yes: Detective (1985), So Long, Stooge (1983) and Le Samouraï (1967).
How are movies similar to Coup de Torchon chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Coup de Torchon, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.