A pie, a caballo y en coche

Mr Martin's daughter is in love with a true noble's son ;a homely man,he and his wife go out of their way to "impress" the aristocrats in their desirable château where they are invited for a posh hunting .

This is a vehicle for Noel-Noel ,and a rather enjoyable one if you do not ask too much ;this is also an interesting time capsule of the fifties,the era when French people began to buy cars (in the sixties,they would buy in bulk)and to take their driving test (Mrs Martin proved herself a better driver than her hubby).

The screenplay is unpretentious but contains funny scenes :

-to be able to buy a car ,Mr Martin works overtime and sells hearing aids - with an instructions leaflet in Polish-to people who are not deaf or even hard of hearing.

-The big car with gadgets which predates James Bond's one,with seat belts to boot (seat belts were made compulsory in the seventies in France)

-the used cars garage where a shrewd employee ,about to be fired,sells a Quatre-Chevaux ,a car absolutely nobody wants to Mr Martin who thinks it's a good deal.

The cast ,outside Noel-Noel is particularly interesting: Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean-Pierre Cassel (Vincent's father) are supporting here but later on,they enjoyed ,mainly the former,much more successful careers than Gil Vidal who plays the romantic male lead;it also features another Noel ,Noel Roquevert ,as an enemy of the cars, Darry Cowl and Jean Tissier as car sellers and Denise Grey as Mr Martin's missus.

The movie was such a success that it spawned a sequel "A Pied A Cheval Et En Spoutnik" ,featuring many of its actors,probably inspired by Laika ,the Russian space dog.