Like Jean Poiret and Michel Serrault,Roger Pierre and Jean-Marc Thibault were one of the most famous comic male duets of the era.Roger Pierre wore several hats in "Un Cheval Pour Deux:actor,writer and director.
25th August 1944;Paris,free at last !and it's my birthday says jailbird Maurice:he is released from the slammer by resistant fighters but he was actually arrested for stealing a bike five years before (perhaps that of the hero of Vittorio De Sica? who knows?)
When he returns home ,all is not so rosy:"what happened in all those years" he naively asks his grumpy mom.Mother is not prepared to feed him for free at a time when housewives stand in line with their ration card in their hands.So Maurice steals again ,this time a horse called Berlingot (=hard candy),so as to sell steaks on the black market.Helped by his so called schoolmate Roland,he begins the task.He must first find potential customers :but,down on his luck,he meets policemen ,priests and nymphomaniacs and his future steaks sell poorly.And to kill the horse they become friends with is beyond them....
Roger Pierre thought his movie was completely lost ,but it is not,and the copy which circulates is quite satisfying."Un Cheval pour Deux" could have been treated as a silent movie ,for many gags are purely visual;there are good things ,notably when Maurice ,in his smart suit ,discovers that fashion has changed since 1939;the ending in the slaughterhouse is a little heavy-handed but Roger Pierre can make his pet cry in the very last shot!
Like this?try these
"La Traversée De Paris " Claude Autant-Lara ,1956
"Heureux Qui Comme Ulysse" Henri Colpi ,1971
