It's a little known fact, but if you look carefully through the history of French Film Noir, you do find a certain strain of imagery, based on the gangster figures ... wearing pyjamas.
Film Noir fake news?
Or a real happening thing?
It's an odd trope, but not entirely a coincidence, and the reason for it lies somewhere within the grey area which separates the idea of comedy, as it's understood in France, as opposed to America.
The French did manage to take the gangsters home. Americna gangsters as seen in da movies lived and breathed the city streets, and were to be found in bars, boxing halls and arenas, prisons, behind ornate desks and racing along in cars. Sometimes they were hold up in hideouts, or running through the alleys and tunnels of the underworld.
This is true of the French gangster too, but here nonetheless are a few shots of gangsters wearing pyjamas, in great French Film Noirs.
Du rififi chez les hommes (1955)
Bob le Fambeur (1956)
Touchez pas au Grisbi (1954)
Probably the ultimate Gangsters in Pyjamas moment, not just in French film noir, but probably in all of cinema.
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