Sérénade au Texas

If you are going to appreciate "Serenade Au Texas" ,your disbelief needs to be suspended .

A notary (Bourvil) tells a music shop owner(Mariano) that he may become an oil Tycoon thanks to an inheritance (the old French cliché of the uncle from America).

Today,Bayonne,France ;overnight Wild West ! A caricature of a western ,in a chocolate-box Texas.The very thin plot shows the cattle breeders about to be driven away from their pastures and their ranches by black riders (that we hardly see) whose head is a respectable man ,who wants to make lots of money out of oil.

As for the rest,that is to say the essential: Bourvil and Mariano ,lost in the (studio) desert ,join a company of traveling players . Mariano sings ,in the desert with a guitar ,à la cowboy,and on stage.The girls from the troupe dance ,in a sequence which predates Malle 's "Viva Maria".Even Bourvil is given two silly ditties. With his first tune "les Pruneaux" (the prunes),he is almost booed off the stage ;but later in the show,he brings the house down with his "A Dada" (on horseback) which even features some saucy lines.

Bourvil serves as a foil to Mariano ,but at least to my eyes ,it's rather the other way round.