Tout l'or du monde

Philippe Noiret has examined the statistics and found the town in France where people live the longest. He buys up all the land and begins the promotion.... except for the house and field belonging to Bourvil, where 'the fountain of youth' is. Bourvil won't sign without talking it over with his heir, also played by Bourvil. They quarrel, the elder Bourvil gets killed, and it's now up to the younger one. He doesn't wish to sign, because he's in love with Annie Fratellini, and wishes to marry her and bring her to the home where his family has lived for .... well, a long time. Except he's never told her. He's a shepherd, so he talks to his sheep.

Rene Clair's movie has a lot of location shooting in the countryside near Lot-et-Garonne (also standing in for South America) for a man who could create all of Paris on a studio set. It's not really a Rene Clair, but a Bourvil film, despite a section of about half an hour in which Paris and la vie de la célébrité is picked apart, the sort of thing he did in his silent films, and the essential meaningless of high finance.

Bourvil's comedic character is a bit dull for my taste, but it's a type that has had successful practitioner before and since -- Stu Erwin's country rube springs to mind. I am told that Bourvil's performances for Gerard Oury were his most popular. He died 1970 at the age of 53. His part in Oury's next movie was taken by Yves Montand.

René Clair is the only director of the French golden age I do not dig;this is one of these directors the new wave embraced without a moment's hesitation whereas they trashed most of his colleagues ruthlessly.

Hindsight is less favorable;"Tout L'Or Du Monde" is not even granted one star in the "Dictionnaire Des Films " and the reviewer wrote that it is unworthy of his masterpieces .

But I do like Bourvil;anyway is there anybody in France who does not like this actor?And because he is in it,I watched it.In fact ,the critics were too hard :Bourvil plays three parts :the father,and the two sons -the second son appears in the last ten minutes- ;as there are no special effects,they are never in the same shot.

All Bourvil had to do is act naturally:he is cast,as often ,as the country bumpkin ,gullible and apparently dumb ,but actually smarter than the chic businessmen and stubborn to boot.

An estate developer discovers ,by looking at the graves in the cemetery,that in a small village ,people live longer than usually:so he wants to buy all the properties around to build a residence,complete with casino,fountain of youth .But they run into difficulties when they want to do peasant Bourvil and son away from their farm that is passed down from generation to generation.

The songs are not an improvement on those of "Le Million" and " Le Dernier Milliardaire" ,but there is a good spoof on the scandal sheets :"France Dimanche" is renamed "Paris Dimanche ",and,should we believe these idiots ,make the broad mass of French people as happy as the stars of their article :"everybody's happy" ,a shrewd Philippe Noiret assures.

This is certainly not a masterpiece ,but Bourvil ,Philippe Noiret and Claude Rich make it worthwhile.You can notice Françoise Dorléac,Catherine Deneuve's late sister ,cast as a journalist.