Grumbach's enthusiasm for American culture prompted him to change his name to that of his favourite writer, Herman Melville. He served in the Free French forces during World War II, founded his own film production company in 1946, and built his own studio in 1949. Melville's early films, such as Le Silence de la mer (1947; “The Silence of the Sea”), were made on small budgets and used character actors instead of established stars. His other early films were Les Enfants terribles (1948; “The Little Terrors”), a brilliant screen adaptation of the novel by Jean Cocteau; Bob le flambeur (1955), his first gangster film; and Deux hommes à Manhattan (1958; “Two Men in Manhattan”). Melville's use of location shooting, natural lighting, and improvisational acting in these films strongly influenced such later directors as Claude Chabrol (Chabrol, Claude), François Truffaut (Truffaut, François), and Jean-Luc Godard (Godard, Jean-Luc).

The stylized decor of Melville's later, more commercial works is strongly reminiscent of the Hollywood products of the 1930s. Léon Morin, prêtre (1961; “Leon Morin, Priest”) was his first major commercial production. It was followed by a series of highly stylized, Hollywood-inspired gangster films: Le Doulos (1962; Doulos—The Finger Man), Le Deuxième Souffle (1966; “Second Wind”), and Le Samourai (1967; “The Samurai”).