Le Saint prend l'affût

"LE Repas Des Fauves" can be looked upon as Christian-Jaque's swansong;beyond that point,all that he made can be dismissed as rubbish: weak thriller (LA SECONDE VERITE),ludicrous farces (LES PETROLEUSES") sub -James Bond (DEUX BILLETS POUR Mexico).

His saint is not even entertaining;Jean Marais was too old for the role and Henri Jeanson whose lines were nasty ,cruel and witty in the precedent work ,"le REPAS DES FAUVES", were so poor you stop and wonder whether such a talented man could have written such drivel!There is not a single line in the whole movie which is funny!not a single one!Jeanson and the director made Leslie Charteris' thriller a spoof ,a farce so ponderous the viewer feels sorry for the talents involved in it.But not for the gamine with hair in bunches ,a millstone around the hero's neck.The boring plot deals with false documents a crook sells to the Germans and to the AmericansAnd let's not forget it,there is a password (which can be heard at least twenty times or more ):" the elephant is in the soft-boiled egg". The version starring Val Kilmer is a masterpiece ,compared with this dud.

Just the pleasure of seeing some famous or less famous actors, French and Italian, seen in other much better movies: Jean Marais, Jess Hahn, Jean Yanne, Tiberio Murgia, Claudio Gora, Carlo Pisacane. A very young Raffaella Carrà, in a small appearance, and a young and sexy Danièle Evenou. But they are all embarrassing in a waste of time, more precisely 1h 30.

This is a real mixed bag. Part Eurospy film, part Mafia spoof and part travelogue. Jean Marais is the only reason to see this. He plays it tongue firmly in cheek and is surprisingly good in the role. The story is just an excuse to go all over France and Italy and introduce stereotypical characters (Mafioso hitmen, secret agents, outrageous villains, etc.). All the action sequences are shot like Three Stooges bits. Really not worth seeing except for Marais and the all too brief bit by Raffaella Carra. As far from the George Sanders films as you can get. Much more like the Roger Moore series but with the humor amped up 1000%.