Le Corniaud

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.

One of the classics of French Comedy from the 1960's, Le Corniaud appears regularly on French TV, and is available on DVD and VHS. The film features 2 of France's greatest comedians, both now dead, Louis de Funes and Bourvil ( real name André Raimbourg ). De Funès manic gesticulations coupled with Bourvil's apparent naiveness in a sombre affaire of driving a car loaded with contraband across the Italian border and into France provide a never-ending series of hilarious situations against the 1960's backcloth of carefree life on the Mediterranean. As they say " they just don't make 'em like that any more ". This film together with " La Grande Vadrouille " which features the same stars constitute milestones in the history of popular French comic cinema.

Of course this movie is dated (43 years by now), but in my opinion that rather adds to the fun. We get to see quite many street scenes of the time, in France and Italy, and of course lots of cars from that period (including two Rolls-Royces). For railfans, even a "Picasso" railcar is thrown in...

I'm normally not a fan of Louis de Funès' frantic humour, which is also evidenced here, but he also has very admirable (non-talking) moments, like the Cadillac repair to a classical music score, or the muscle comparison in the camping shower.

In all, a turbulent comedy plus Italian road movie. Very lovely. The German DVD I bought (Universal 2008, titled "Louis, das Schlitzohr") also has English, Spanish and Dutch dubs, but not the original French soundtrack. Still, jolly good fun which made my Friday night perfect :^)

This new team-up of Bourvil and Fufu have the same recipe that "La Grande Vadrouille". Bourvil is a kind, simple mind whereas Fufu is a Machiavellian crook. However, Bourvil always bores me while Fufu is a delight: he may be nervous but i can feel behind a great humanity and i really like his beat.

Here, they are filmed in Italy in the sixties and it's cool to see how it was like 50 years ago. Personally, i found this movie funnier than the one mentioned above but it lacks its dramatic background as well. The idea of someone who is spied who is spied is original and I don't think it has been used often. Maybe the great surprise of this movie should be its score because Delerue finds a lot of very great themes!

And the car repair scene at night edited with Rossini's TARENTELLA is one of the best comedy scene ever: it's crazy, funny, punchy, lyrical: everything is told without a single words: BRAVISSIMA🇮🇹