In this Frenco-Italian gangster parody, a shop keeper on his way to an Italian holiday suffers a crash which totals his car. The culprit can only compensate his ruined trip by driving an American friends car from Napels to Bordeaux, but as it happens to be filled with such contraband as stolen money, jewelry and drugs, the involuntary and unwitting companions in crime soon attract all but recreational attention from the "milieu".
Similar titles
You May Also Like
Reviews
People are voting emotionally.
How sad is this?
This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.
By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.
This new team-up of Bourvil and Fufu have the same recipe that "La Grande Vadrouille". Bourvil is a kind, simple mind whereas Fufu is a Machiavellian crook. However, Bourvil always bores me while Fufu is a delight: he may be nervous but i can feel behind a great humanity and i really like his beat.Here, they are filmed in Italy in the sixties and it's cool to see how it was like 50 years ago. Personally, i found this movie funnier than the one mentioned above but it lacks its dramatic background as well. The idea of someone who is spied who is spied is original and I don't think it has been used often. Maybe the great surprise of this movie should be its score because Delerue finds a lot of very great themes!
Outstanding location shooting in two of Europe's most photogenic countries (Italy and France), a comic 'caper' plot with guns that don't really kill plus two of the greatest comedians in French cinema - Louis de Funes and Bourvil - has to be an unbeatable parlay and in fact the following year they did it again - or something very, very similar in Le Grande Vadrouille in which the director of both films, ex-actor Gerard Oury, brought his daughter, Danielle Thompson, on board as co-scriptwriter. It was also a nice touch to name the Louis de Funes character after the Armenian-American writer William Saroyan, now largely forgotten but once hugely popular whose schtick was humorous whimsey. The plot won't really stand scrutiny under a harsh light; Bourvil's 2CV is totally written off by the roller of de Funes even before he has left Paris on his proposed driving holiday in Italy. Knowing a rube when he sees one de Funes makes Bourvil an offer he can't refuse; the 'loan' of a Cadillac which needs to be driven from Naples to Bordeaux plus a ticket to Naples and spending money. What Bourvil doesn't know, of course, is that the car is bristling with gold, heroin and diamonds and how unwittingly he gets rid of these en route is half the fun. Perhaps a tad dated forty years on but still one of the best 'feelgoods' around.
This was playing on French TV when I was on a recent trip to France. I laughed often during this marvelous old film. Even though my understanding of the language is minimal, I enjoyed this movie very much.It has some wonderful physical comedy and the vintage cars and clothes are a treat to watch. The main character, who remains oblivious throughout the story, is a lovable clueless man. The crooks are appropriately stupid.The camp shower scene is a classic. Even my husband laughed out loud during that ... a rare occurrence.I wish I knew where to buy this film with English subtitles to watch it on a dreary winter night! It would a fun one to share with others to raise serotonin levels for all.
Bourvil plays the role of Antoine Marechal, a seemingly witless insurance salesman, who on his way to a vacation in Italy in his "deux cheveaux" automobile gets hit and has his car literally destroyed by the Rolls Royce of Leopold Saroyan, an affluent industrialist played by Louis de Funes. In order to make amends, Saroyan offers to have Marechal complete his trip to Italy in his convertible Cadillac (replete with a mobile phone and phonograph player - this is no less than twenty years before the advent of cellular phones and CD players). What Marechal doesn't know is that the Cadillac is also laden with stolen jewelry and drugs to be smuggled unwittingly by him across the border. What's more, Saroyan and two cronies as well as a smattering of other criminals tail Marechal during his journey across Italy and try to intercept or recharge, as the case may be, the merchandise on board the Cadillac. The hi-jinks in this movie are incredibly funny. This film is a worthy precursor to de Funes' "The Adventures of Rabbi Jacob."