Le Gendarme en balade

I started rewatching all the "gendarme" movies, classic comedies from my youth. In France and Belgium everybody watched those movies, especially because of the presence of Louis de Funès, the greatest French comedian ever. The man with a thousand gimmicks never fails to entertain. Michel Galabru is also another French actor that made a lot of people laugh so having those two in the same movie is always worth a watch. Le Gendarme En Balade is like Le Gendarme Se Marie, it's contains some stupid scenes but the good scenes made it all worth watching. I watched those movies so many times and I think they're still funny, even after all those years.

and one of De Funes' funniest ever. The fourth movie in the Gendarme series, this story finds the boys in forced retirement from the cushy police job at St. Tropez because they've become too old. When the Adjutant (Galabru) comes to visit De Funes to reminisce about old times, they discover that one of their old group (Fougasse) has had a head injury, has amnesia and is in an institution. They decide to get the old gang back and save him. But to save him, they decide to kidnap him and don their old Gendarme uniforms so they can bring back his memory of who he is. That's where the fun starts, because soon they are pursued by real Gendarmes for impersonating false Gendarmes. It's silly fun but very funny, thanks to brilliant performances by De Funes and Galabru.

Throughout the film, there are too many funny moments with De Funes to mention. In the early scenes, I died laughing when De Funes, now a rich man for having married into wealth, punches out his maid repeatedly in the face. De Funes' outlandish comedic rages have often been compared to the manic temper of Donald Duck. In another scene, De Funes is at his absolute best when mumbling incredible gibberish when he and his false Gendarmes get stoned on marijuana in a hippie commune, where they are forced to hide from the real Gendarmes pursuing them. But one of the very best scenes of De Funes in any movie is when the false Gendarmes arrive upon a traffic accident and can't help themselves; they must don their old uniforms and become cops again if only for a few moments. In this scene, De Funes uses a police whistle to clear the accident from the road and, from the sounds he makes, you can actually understand what words in cop language his cadence implies. It's unforgettable. The man was a genius and there will never be another.

...and it could not be less. because it has the right actors and locations and a brilliant script. because the irony about stereotypes remains fresh and crazy and seductive. and because it has the perfect couple - de Funes - Galabru, and, more than others parts of series, the small, delicate feeling of the return to a world who remains significant part of life/identity. a lot of adventures and gags. not different but the first three parts. but nice and crazy and touching. because they are the virtues of the brave troops .

The entire San Trope's gendarmerie is sent in an early retirement, to replace them with younger, stronger and more modern gendarmes. But Cruchot and his friends hardly endure the boredom of pensioner's life and soon get into a series of hilarious troubles. This fourth movie doesn't bring anything especially new into the franchise, but there are no bigger flaws either. A light comedy adventure for resting the brain.

6/10

This is a very entertaining outing about Marechal Ludovic Cruchot(Louis De Funes) along with his gendarmes group(Michael Galabru,Jean Lefebre,Guy Grosso,Michael Modo) are prematurely retired. Six months later,Cruchot retires into mansion her rich wife(Claude Gensac) where lives a boring life. But comes his pal Marechal(Michael Galabru) remembering old times. Cruchot has a museum of records and both remember their nostalgics adventures in the Gendarmerie Nationale, as they memorize images from'Gendarmes in N.Y, ' Gendarme get married' and 'Gendarme at St Tropez' when Lucien(Jean Lefebre) is obligated to nude himself for chasing nudists . When Lucien is interned in a clinic caused by lost memory, the group is reunited and then they go into action and impersonate again as gendarmes . The gendarmes outfit undergo several adventures,moving in disguise, dressing as hippies, smoking marijuana, and terminating into a hippie commune where everybody say: I love you.This time gendarmes aren't struggling with persistent nude swimmers but they protect them from parachuted gendarmes.Meantime they're pursued by real gendarmes and hid under a sheep flock. Besides the nuns who appeared previous episodes ask their help but five children have disappeared. Then the gendarmes wind up pursued by an atomic rocket.

This enjoyable French comedy upon the likable gendarmes packs crazy humor,lively situations amusement and too much fun. Louis De Funes, as always, stooges, grimaces and intense mocking faces . Highlights are the mimic gesticulation with a priest, and the conversation via whistle during a traffic jam. Again Claude Gensac,as Ludovic's spouse, she collaborated with Funes in numerous films, often playing his character's wife. Luminous local photography under St. Tropez's blue sky . Lively music score by Raymond Lefebre , includes the usual leitmotif , musical background in habitual ending parade.The picture is professionally directed and ingeniously written by customary director, Jean Girault.Another movies about Cruchot series are : ¨Gendarme of Saiz Tropez, Gendarme Get married, Gendarme and creatures of outer space and Gendarme and the Gendarmettes¨ , the last acting of the great Louis De Funes, an authentic farceur.