Le costaud des Batignolles

The first of the two movies directed by Guy Lacourt,both featuring Raymond Bussières and wife Annette Poivre.

Short puny Jules would like to be a beefy man and he does body-building every morning to no avail.All the big boys around laugh at him and call him names ;these hefty men are burglars and Jules feels compelled to help them with their dirty deeds.In the house they burglarise,Jules meets again Mémette ,on her former friends .Then the movie becomes another version of Popeye :whereas a can of spinach gives the sailor man his strength,a (magic) kiss from Mémette's lips turns frail Jules into Hercules.

Some good scenes :the gangsters,drawing up an inventory of their booty and drawing lots to share it;the doctor,examining the strong man and kissing (twice) the girlfriend to see if it "works" with someone else.

By and large ,this is less funny than Lacourt's follow-up,"Mon Frangin Du Sénégal" ,which in the way,was a variation on the same theme: a hang-up guy who tries to be a better himself.In the 1953 effort ,Bussières had a more interesting part,creating two different personalities.

And also a very good movie for those who are full of Paris nostalgia, Paris of the fifties. Of course it is lousy, but it was not destined to be a masterpiece, only to entertain. I would not spend my whole time watching this kind of films, but once in a while, it is very amusing. I don't think that foreign audiences will find it intersting, because it is typical French humor. And every country has its own. Raymond Bussières is excellent as the lead.