Reviews

This film originated as a play in Paris. The story focuses on the one-day adventures of Bertrand Barnier played with a genius of French cinema, Louis de Funes. In the same morning he learns that his daughter is pregnant, an employee stole a large amount of money from his company, his maid is about to resign in order to marry a wealthy neighbor and his body builder is interested in marrying his daughter. The seemingly complicated story-line is full of comedy or errors and some of the most hilarious mime scenes of the French cinema. There is never a dull moment in this film.

This is one of the best comedies in the French cinema. Louis de Funes plays the role of Victor Pivert, an industrialist with a Napoleonic complex and a tendency for racist viewpoints, who inadvertantly teams up with, Mohamed Larbi Slimane, an exiled Arab political oposition candidate who is on the run from hired assassins in Paris. Pivert and Slimane masquerade as two Jewish rabbis in order to save their lives. What follows are hillarious scenes taking place in the Jewish section of Paris as well as in the surrounding areas. Watch out for the incredible mime scenes by Louis de Funes at the gas station and in the Orly airport.

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."