Du rififi chez les hommes was released in France on 13 April 1955.
Auguste Le Breton adapted his 1953 novel for the screen and Jean-Pierre Melville was asked to direct, but deferred to Jules Dassin. Dassin had not directed a film in 5 years and had relocated to Europe after being blacklisted in Hollywood during the "Red Scare" (Dassin's involvement with supposed Communists had been discussed as early as 1947, but he was explicitly named by Edward Dmytryk and Frank Tuttle in 1951 in testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee).
Dassin rewrote Auguste Le Breton's screenplay (writing in English, and Rene Wheeler then translated it into French), removing material he found objectionable (including overt racist stereotypes and necrophilia) and expanding the heist scene (which is almost 25% of the film's screen time).
Working with a small budget, Dassin cast Jean Servais in the lead and himself as the safecracker César the Milanese. Dassin was paid a total of $8,000 for writing, directing, and acting in the film.
The film was a commercial and critical success, with critic (and not yet a filmmaker) Francois Truffaut writing, ""Out of the worst crime novel I ever read, Jules Dassin has made the best crime film I've ever seen."
Dassin received the Best Director Award at the Cannes Film Festival and the film was offered distribution in the US on the condition that Dassin renounce his past associations with Communists. Dassin refused and the film was released in the US in June 1956 (effectively making Dassin the first to break the blacklist) as Rififi. . . Means Trouble! (the original French title is slang approximated as "a brutal show of force" or "tough guy act").
Rififi is now regarded as one of the greatest film noirs of all time, and the heist scene has been highly influential, often imitated, but never duplicated, and still remains one of the great scenes in crime movies.