El papanatas

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."

Le Corniaud is a hilarious french movie from the sixties. It is the kind of feel good movie I like to watch on a sunny sunday afternoon.

The story is a ridiciulously funny crime story about a guy (Bourvil) who just left home for the holidays when he gets hit by a car (owned by De Funes). De Funes settles the case by providing Bourvil with a brand new cadilac to continue his holiday to Italy. Of course Bourvil does not know that he is now smuggling gold, heroin and a giant diamand hidden in that cadilac. The coupling of actors Louis de Funes and Bourvil is ace, the locations are beautiful (France and Italy during summer) and the fun is enormous. Sad thing only that Studio Canal just released all Louis de Funes movies on dvd without any subtitles... sham

It's a fun ride and there's no time to get bored. Some scenes in particular are genuinely funny (the shower scene with Louis de Funes is a classic, the whole shooting scene in the gardens is superb) and the film makers were positively inspired to produce quality comedy rather than just injecting generic humor into the movie just to fill in the scenes. It's more a case of actual gags, with natural organic humor, that were thought up carefully rather than just cramming a bit of processed haha to get through to the end.

It's carefully written and crafted, and it's quite a ride with all sorts of twists and bumps and new characters adding an extra dynamic to the story and Bourvil and De Funes do very well to add that warm organic feel to it as it easily could've been a film which comedy tag would only be honorary, and focused mostly on the plot. Many comedies are tagged as 'comedy' but aren't actually funny, they're just comedy in tone but won't actually make you laugh.

The last part, say about the last half hour, is a little bit stretchy, kind of takes a turn of its own and feels a tad different from the rest of the film, somewhat slows down the momentum, and does feel like they had to mix it up and were compelled to come up with content to finish off the picture, although the very last image is very true to the film.

7.5/10.

This was playing on French TV when I was on a recent trip to France. I laughed often during this marvelous old film. Even though my understanding of the language is minimal, I enjoyed this movie very much.

It has some wonderful physical comedy and the vintage cars and clothes are a treat to watch. The main character, who remains oblivious throughout the story, is a lovable clueless man. The crooks are appropriately stupid.

The camp shower scene is a classic. Even my husband laughed out loud during that ... a rare occurrence.

I wish I knew where to buy this film with English subtitles to watch it on a dreary winter night! It would a fun one to share with others to raise serotonin levels for all.

I first watched Le Corniaud when I was still a student in colonial Mozambique and found it roaringly funny - the scenes of sugar cubes placed in the gasoline tank (twice) with de Funes promptly getting his aides to suck out the gasoline; that marvellous camp shower scene; and Bourvil missing the plot altogether, unwittingly dispersing the contraband goods all over the place and always finding gorgeous women for company - it is all zany, unpretentious fun from a time long gone when fun could be politically incorrect without anyone giving it a second thought or being offended by it.

I have watched Le Corniaud twice since Mozambique and though the story is a bit patchy the leading duo is in top form, the Italian scenery is to die for, and it has such wonderful vignettes that I cannot help but laugh and laugh and laugh.