World War II is raging, but in the French village of Nouvion, café owner René Artois wants only a quiet life, plus some slap and tickle with his waitress Yvette behind his sour wife Edith's ... Read allWorld War II is raging, but in the French village of Nouvion, café owner René Artois wants only a quiet life, plus some slap and tickle with his waitress Yvette behind his sour wife Edith's back. To this end, he keeps in with two German officers who are regular café patrons, Kurt... Read allWorld War II is raging, but in the French village of Nouvion, café owner René Artois wants only a quiet life, plus some slap and tickle with his waitress Yvette behind his sour wife Edith's back. To this end, he keeps in with two German officers who are regular café patrons, Kurt von Strohm and Hans Geering. He is therefore alarmed when Michelle of the Resistance decl... Read all
Photos
- Resistance Girl
- (uncredited)
- German Soldier
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe events occur post-Dunkirk, placing it after 26 May - 4 June 1940.
- GoofsAt 7:36, when René calls Yvette and Edith into the back room, the chair Edith puts on the table falls off and nearly hits Yvette, who nimbly moves round it and carries on with the scene. In the 1980s there was very little time (and no budget) to do retakes, with most episodes being shot "as live" so little imperfections like this were commonplace.
- Quotes
René: Good evening, Herr Lieutenant. What is your pleasure?
Lt. Hubert Gruber: I would like a cognac, if you please?
René: Maria, cognac for the officer. If you would like to, eh
Lt. Hubert Gruber: Why not, why not?
René: [René puts down the cognac. Lt. Hubert Gruber reaches into his pocket and produces a cigar. René mistakes Lt. Hubert Gruber for Leclerc] I - I - I expect you would like a light?
Lt. Hubert Gruber: Thank you, you're very kind.
René: I have no matches.
Lt. Hubert Gruber: Then why do you ask me if I would like a light?
René: I'm very sorry.
Lt. Hubert Gruber: If you have no matches... if you have no matches, take mine. I have a spare box.
René: Are you one of them?
Lt. Hubert Gruber: Well, it... it was very lonely on the Russian front.
Roger Leclerc: A cognac, if you please?
René: Maria, a cognac.
Roger Leclerc: [Roger Leclerc reaches into his pocket and produces a cigar. Lt. Hubert Gruber notices and lights Leclerc's cigar. Roger Leclerc to René] Do you have a light?
Lt. Hubert Gruber: What do you want a light for? I just lit it.
Roger Leclerc: Well, I don't want a light, I just wondered... if he had a light.
René: I have no matches.
Lt. Hubert Gruber: I've just given you some matches!
René: These are your matches! They're not my matches.
Roger Leclerc: [to René] Is he one of us?
René: No, he's one of them.
Roger Leclerc: Please do not tell everybody!
- ConnectionsSpoofs Secret Army: Weekend (1978)
- SoundtracksUnder the Bridges of Paris
(Sous les Ponts de Paris)
(uncredited)
Music by Vincent Scotto
French lyrics by Jean Rodor
English lyrics by Dorcas Cochran
Performed by Jack Haig and Carmen Silvera
Lloyd and Croft drew their inspiration from "Secret Army," the acclaimed 1970s British World War Two drama about a Belgian Resistance effort, the fictional Lifeline, that secretly facilitated the return of downed Allied airmen to Britain, and from the 1960s American sitcom "Hogan's Heroes," whose premise involved an Allied intelligence and sabotage unit operating covertly from a German prisoner-of-war camp for downed enemy airmen. Both series informed the seriocomic premise of "'Allo 'Allo!," set in the French coastal town of Nouvion, where harried café owner Rene Artois must mollify both the occupying Germans and the underground French Resistance--and a few other parties besides.
Moreover, "'Allo 'Allo!" tweaked the nose of "Hogan's Heroes" through a brilliant and hilarious device: To obviate the need for subtitles, everyone spoke in an exaggerated accent that indicated what language they were supposed to be speaking. (In "Hogan's Heroes," everyone simply spoke English--even the German characters when they were speaking only among themselves.) However, because of the preponderance of both French and German characters, "'Allo 'Allo!" does make a "Hogan's Heroes"-styled concession by implying that they are all bilingual--nothing lost in translation.
The opener introduces virtually all the Series One regulars. Rene runs the bar with his wife Edith while, unbeknownst to her, he is having affairs with waitresses Yvette Carte-Blanche and Maria Recamier, unbeknownst to each other. All of them must serve the local Germans including Colonel Kurt von Strohm and his adjutant Captain Hans Geering--although for Maria and Yvette that service includes more than food--Lieutenant Hubert Gruber, who would like more than refreshment service from Rene, and Gestapo agent Herr Otto Flick, who is carrying on with von Strohm's secretary, Private Helga Geerhart.
Indeed, as they had done with their previous sitcom "Are You Being Served?," Croft and Lloyd make liberal use of sexual innuendo, leaving viewers to ponder the erotic possibilities of what Maria and Yvette do with that wet celery while Otto's clipped domination of outwardly imperious Helga certainly arouses them both. Yet all is not simply gratuitous titillation (as it would be in an American program)--if Yvette must use the flying helmet and feather duster, it means a few more liters of German paraffin for her poor widowed mother.
Also part of the regular cast is Michelle "of the Resistance" Dubois, who arrives at Rene's café and informs him that it is the new underground safehouse for two downed British airmen, Flight Lieutenants Fairfax and Carstairs, soon to arrive, capping the clandestine radio previously installed under his mother-in-law Fanny La Fan's bed in her attic room and the arrival of documents forger Roger Leclerc, sprung from jail in a riotous breakout and a participant in the equally hilarious botched coded exchange that leaves Gruber attracted to Rene.
As Rene, Gorden Kaye stage-manages the flurry of activity that nevertheless proceeds organically from circumstance and is never extraneous--pay attention to the setup here because it is catalyst for the subsequent episodes as "'Allo 'Allo!" advances along a story arc whose overt hilarity is underscored by shards of tension inherent in the premise of the extremely promising "The British Are Coming."
- darryl-tahirali
- Apr 10, 2022
Details
- Runtime35 minutes
- Color