Vieille canaille

The only movie made by TV producer ,screenwriter and director Gerard Jourd'Hui which was released in the theaters ;it's a successful effort, with a sensational performance by Michel Serrault;based on a Frederic Brown novel,it perfectly captures his tongue in chick suspense, his gruesome humor and his complete immorality .....

Darius (sic) Caunes is a modest printer flanked by a cantankerous spouse ;he finally does away with her and becomes friends with the lieutenant in charge of the investigation ...who does not suspect him at all! Non content with having done such an awful crime,he is also a counterfeiter -which is easy in his printing house-who "gets some change" far away from his home ,one fake bank note at a time .But one blimp is enough to bring everything grinding to a halt !His secretary ,pretty Rose, gives some of these forged banknotes to a buck she is in love with...

Michel Serrault gives a superlative performance (his wry smile, his ironical comments in voice over) ,a criminal but also a respectable little bourgeois ;fine support by Pierre Richard as the cop who has not got a clue . The scene in the cafe when he embraces his embarrassed friend is sher genius ....but a final revelation is reductio ad absurdum that the denouement was not that much immoral after all.

Violence is kept to economic levels, for the crimes are committed behind the scenes;watch this riotously funny comedy -which includes a conversation with the rascal's cat -and take a good dose of black humor.

What I liked best was the sound track, with echoes from Puccini's Gianni Scicci. The plot is also an acceptable average, which also reminds of "Rien ne va plus" from Claude Chabrol, with the same Michel Serrault playing the role of a modest ordinary crook, trying his best to turn his boring life into an affordable extraordinary adventure.