La course à l'échalote

I always see him again with pleasure, even if the first time I laughed harder. It's a comedy specific to the French cinema of the '60s and' 70s, some jokes may seem naive, but the film is funny, the soundtrack very engaging, and Pierre Richard funny, as always, at least in his youth. Let's not forget that Hollywood did some remakes of Pierre Richard's films - The ComDads, The Fugitives, The Toy.

A not so capable man (played by Pierre Richard) is appointed to handle the affairs of a bank during the time the director is gone. When he's in charge, a suitcase with an important paper gets stolen, and he wants to retrieve it. Police thinks he's the culprit and his girlfriend wants him back. So, basically, everyone's after Pierre Richard in this film.

I expected not much. A film by Claude Zidi, once a camera operator from Claude Chabrol, who made a bunch of mediocre comedies. As if to prove this, there's a joke with a toilet bowl only after five minutes.

But it was too hard to resist to the gags and I started giggling anyhow. The thing is, Pierre Richard pulls it all off every time - trying to yell 'au secours' when his voice is hoarse, fumbling with keys, playing a blind man, reassuring a detective that there are no problems while there obviously are. Even the joke with the toilet bowl.

It's a goofy comedy, with a lot of predictable jokes, but it's PASSIONATELY GOOFY. Although this film is far from Le Grand Blond..., the best Pierre Richard-film I know of, it has great speed and some funny episodes. Most funny bits, for me, were the exuberant episodes in a carnivalesque train and the grand final. I rate it 6/10.

The whole intrigue is centered around carte-blanche documents kept in a vault. Whoever fills in the blank becomes the owner of a revue. Big money is involved. The nephew of the owner of the vault is trying to cheat his uncle and have his name in the documents. Everything is even more complicated because the manager of the bank has a finger in the pie, too. Who but a humble bank-teller (Pierre Richard) will ruin the scheme? He is involved in a wild chase both in France and Britain. He and his girl-friend get into scores of comic situations chasing the case stuffed with money. The character of Pierre Richard is victorious and becomes the owner of the revue unmasking the dirty plot of the villains. Side-splitting.

The theater scene in Britain is above the best! So is the scene in the old house and many more to come. The whole movie is superb, i've watched it lots of times and i want to do it again! It was one of my favorites during childhood because of it's incredible sense of humor and laugh-episodes. The music is awesome too!

Pierre is at his best. I really liked those bad guys in swan disguise! What a sight! It's European humor, not some toilet jokes, pure humor which is not gross or nasty.

Plot is in a way not realistic, but it's very funny and hilarious. The road-movie type script makes it even better and keeps your interest.

See it! It's better than recent years comedies together!