Einer bleibt auf der Strecke

The two main actors in this film, Lino Ventura and Bourvil could indeed lead the prospective viewer to actually believe he/she was in for something exciting. Erreur !! I'm sorry to say, at over 2 hours this really was one of the most laborious and soporific adventure films I have seen. Even the beauty of of the Vosges mountains and the lovely face of Marie Dubois can't save the day. The main problem is the plot, which is hopelessly limited. Bourvil returns to the Vosges mountains, in Eastern France to take over the sawmill run by his late father. One of the locals want's to buy out the said sawmill but Bourvil holds out on his own ( he's not a Norman for nothing !!! ). But he needs workers. Enter Lino Ventura and a friend, recently out of prison and looking for work. They get taken on by Bourvil and get other prisoners on parole to work there. This is not just kindess on the part of Ventura, he hopes to get one of his deadly enemies from prison to work there so that he can exact revenge and kill him.

The blessed chap in question never actually turns up, we don't know why and Ventura never accomplishes his project. Bourvil ends up setting fire to the saw mill and throwing in the towel. This totally uninteresting little plot wastes 2 hours of your time and you really wonder where the scriptwriter was intending to go with all that. It's really a shame such great actors/actresses wasting their time on a corny plot like this.

Picture quality is passable for mid sixties but I found the colors to be rather washed out and over whitish. Rather a shame when you know that the area in question ( I've been there myself and can vouch for its scenic beauty ) is so beautiful.

After about 30 minutes of watching this film you begin to realize that the whole this is starting to s...a....g !! At the end, it just fizzles out and you wonder why you wasted two hours of your time on it. This is one I CERTAINLY won't have the courage to watch a second time !!

With "les Grandes gueules" ,Robert Enrico made a volte face:whereas his first works ' actors were completely unknown,he 's got two French megastars Bourvil and Lino Ventura.

Someone who would have only seen Enrico's two first efforts might easily think that this Enrico is another director an homonym."Au coeur de LA Vie" his first film was a masterpiece ,so ahead of its time it continues to fascinate the directors ("Jacob's ladder" was clearly inspired by "La Riviere du Hibou " aka "An Occurrence at owl creek bridge" ).Although not as ambitious in scope as it,"la Belle Vie" was anti-commercial stuff.

Actually "les Grandes Gueules" is Robert Enrico as the audience may have to like him: manly friendship,fighting against something hostile. Jose Giovanni provided Enrico with the screenplay and the most amazing thing is that the villains either do not intervene (the big sawmill's boss's men )very often in a 2hours+ movie or do not show up (Ventura's enemy) at all.Few women :Mick and his girlfriend's love affair is doomed.Marie Dubois's part is too underwritten to allow her to shine in a man's story.

Finally,"Les Grandes gueules" is a blueprint for Enrico's next movie ,"les Aventuriers" which succeeded at depicting male friendship,introducing an endearing female character and telling a really absorbing tale (again written by Jose Giovanni)

This is a typical excellent french movie with two of the best french actors : lino ventura and bourvil. The story is good, the acting is perfect and the atmosphere of the film is very pleasant; My advice : one of the best french adventure movies

I don't know if Jose Giovanni and Robert Enrico made this movie as a tribute to the John Ford's atmosphere, or even Tay Garnett's: rough, tough guys, no reluctant to fist fight, big mouth, golden heart, manhood all over the place, generous in feelings. I also thought of Andrew Mac Laglen's films such as MC LINTOCK. OK Mac Laglen meant Ford, xanks to Victor Mc Laglen...So LES GRANDES GUEULES remains a classic of French film industry, especially from the sixties, a forever lost cinema. Giovanni and Enrico have worked together on LES AVENTURIERS, HO and this very one. LES AVENTURIERS is of course very close to this one, not only because Lino Ventura's presence but also because both movies are adapted from the same Jose Giovanni's book. It is long, two hours length, but you get never bored. In the equivalent US film, the producers would have hired their local heavies, such as Chuck Bronson, Ted de Corsia or Leo Gordon. Here you had Michel Constantin and Jess Hahn, who worked together again in L'ARDOISE, four years later.

Having served eleven years in prison as a convicted murderer and narrowly escaping the clutches of Madame la Guillotine, Joseph Damiani who became José Giovanni, could hardly be called a jackpot of admirable character traits. Once his novel 'Le Trou', based upon his own attempted escape from prison was taken up by Jacques Becker, he never looked back which just goes to prove that crime does pay. Naturally he himself asserted that he had 'paid his debt to society'.

His lurid background and intimate knowledge of the criminal mentality certainly gave an edge and a sense of realism to his writings which proved irresistible to directors and provided meaty roles for some of France's most iconic actors. Here he has adapted his own 'Haut-fer'.

Director Robert Enrico has again secured the expensive services of Lino Ventura who teams up with equally expensive Bourvil and they complement each other very well in their sole outing together. Ventura is entering his mature phase with his best roles yet to come and Bourvil again proves his abilities as a straight actor despite being known mainly for his rather infantile comedies.

Laurent, an ex-con played by Ventura, helps the Hector of Bourvil to run his failing sawmill by utilising a bunch of jailbirds on parole as lumberjacks. This is resented by a powerful local landowner and results in gang warfare. Moreover it seems that Laurent's motives for aiding Hector are not of the finest......

It is set in the Vosges region but with its subject matter and Morricone-like score by Francois de Roubaix, it could just as easily be transposed to the wild West where men were men and women were willing. As one would expect from Giovanni the men are decidedly men and the women seem willing enough, none more so than lovely Marie Dubois.

Plenty of testosterone-fuelled, mucho macho posturing here of course, notably from Jess Hahn as a Neanderthal nitwit whilst Michel Constantine supplies his customarily understated menace. Ventura is able to utilise his previous experience in the Ring to great effect in the frequent fisticuff fests that punctuate the film at regular intervals. He also gets to rival Jean Gabin in the sheer quantity of cigarettes he smokes.

For those who like this sort of thing there is a great deal here to enjoy but it fails alas to fulfil its early promise and is simply not substantial enough to justify its two hour length whilst Giovanni's themes are better suited to a more enclosed underworld setting. Great conflagration scene however and an effective downbeat ending.

We should be grateful for small mercies in that this film was not directed by Giovanni himself.