Bébés à gogo

France,late fifties:the baby boom was not over ...at least in " Bébés A Gogo'(=baby galore)

The family's daughter and her husband (Jean Carmet ,35 at the time,supposedly still student) are still living with dad (Raymond Souplex ) and mom (Jeanne Sourza),and they gave birth to seven children ,and the eighth is expected soon...

Dad is sick and tired of this fertility till...a childhood industries rep (Louis De Funès,40th minute)turns up and tells him that ,if he can have 12 grandchildren before he turns 50,he will be the winner of a hefty sum:enough to buy a house in the country,par excellence the Parisian's wildest dream.

But the hubby' 's fertility seems to run dry at the very moment when his in-law urges him to be prolific again.

This old-fashioned comedy is based on a play,"Isabelle Et Le Pélican" inspired by Alfred De Musset's poem "Le Pélican" .

L'Office Catholique Du Cinéma wrote: "they could have spared the audience some rude words ";this film features very good comic actors,the best of whom seems to be De Funès"

Today,only De Funès fans would be interested in this coarse comedy;but it's interesting to watch the French middle-class way of life in the mid-fifties: the mass on Sunday ,and the Saint-Honoré for afters, the Deux-Chevaux car and its dreadful suspension,all the brats proud of becoming scouts ....

Paul Mesnier,the director,has fallen into oblivion:his best movie remains "La Kermesse rouge" a melodrama set against the backdrop of the Bazar De La Charité great fire.

Like this?Try these......

"Papa Maman La Bonne Et Moi" (Le Chanois,1954)

"Papa Maman Ma Femme Et Moi" (Le Chanois,1956)