Seine Majestät, der Seehund

The well-ordered life of François, who was about to enter into a beautiful marriage, is disrupted by the irruption into his life of a seal, which he won in a raffle. His fiancée does not appreciate the intruder and the couple's peaceful existence turns into a succession of disappointments. Soon, the daily life of the two lovers has little in common with an idyll from sentimental novels. The friendly animal does nothing to improve things.

In "Bobosse" (1959),François Périer.was able to play a dozen of characters at once :it had to be seen to be believed !

So ,playing opposite a seal was not mission impossible ; one of the finest French actors of the twentieth century , he played this as seriously as he would do with the great directors he worked with (Clair,Cocteau,Duvivier, Clément, Chabrol ,Melville ....)And anyway Pierre Billon was a competent director ;that he was able to direct a seal is proof positive ;and half of the scenes features only the principal and his pet.

The screenplay is based on a French/English vocabulary misunderstanding : "seal" in English has two main meanings: the animal and,among many others, a usually ornamental adhesive stamp that may be used to close a letter or package; in the French language ,"seal" is "phoque "(the animal) ,but "stamp" is "cachet" .

This is a zany comedy which did not deserve such a low rating ;the trick of the very rare fish the seal gobbles up when the colonel prides himself of these pricey fishes is worth the price of admission.