Ah! les belles bacchantes....

I was expecting a B-Movie French musical. After all, Dhéry, Blanche, DeFunès were superstars of low budget French films of that time. And it is in color! But I have hallucination in this unbelievable one hour 30 of pure mediocrity. Musical numbers are awful, and comedy is absolutely boring and stupid. And the songs? What songs? This is just a succession of bad numbers, one after another. The only one very rare thing about that thing is the nudity of women. It was not familiar at that time. In fact, some numbers are just there to show us topless women. It adds to the mediocrity! And try to find young Michel Serrault, the future great actor of French cinema, in a bit part as a musician, in his very first movie. Good luck!

I definitely can't agree with the previous comments. This movie is very good and very funny. It's not a De funès Movie, but a Branquignol's one, with Robert Dhery as himself, Colette brosset as a delicious ingénue, and De Funès is "le poulet" ( the chicken, this is the name we give to the policemen). He has only a supporting role. Of course, Mario David is the beautiful muscular man, jacqueline Maillan is herself ( Madame Maillan, the proprietary of the theatre) and Jacques Jouanneau the régisseur. Raymond Bussières is as good as usual,playing Raymond le plombier... the scene with Rosine Luguet at the beginning is really funny,and when he speaks to Robert Dhery about the diameter of the tubes it's very realistic. I'd say Jacques Legras ( as himself) is the main character. He is very good. Too bad he didn't make a great career later.

Well, the choreography is a parody of french music hall. Don't expect it to be good. it is not a musical movie but a parody. The 'défilé sans robes'(the dresses didn't come in time, so the girls make the show in underwear but Jacques Legras makes comment about the non existent taffetas dresses) is hilarious. Overall it is a good funny movie, a good adaptation of the stage performance.

There are many nude scenes, but this is no problem as it is quite normal for a french cabaret ( only Americans can pretend to make a movie about french cabaret without naked girls).

Louis de funès became a big star later.... In Pouic Pouic He was the husband of Jacqueline Maillan, and in Le petit Baigneur we find again Robert Dhery, Colette Brosset and Jacques Legras.... In Oscar mario David plays the same role, in "le grand restaurant" there is the same pianist and so on. This movie is full of reference for later movies of De Funès. I must admit only french from France can get all the fun from this movie and it is for limited audience, but it's from a time, and made by people who didn't even think their movie could be watched overseas or could last for 50 years. 'Vos gueules les mouettes' and 'Allez France' or les tontons flingueurs are better references (IMO) than la cage aux folles.

You got to be such a snob, with a very limited horizont and a shallow mind to make a bad review on this movie.

I feel sorry for those who can't enjoy a film from another world, from 70 years ago, when things were simpler, the laughs were more honestly and even the nudity were more intriguing.

You just have to enjoy it, a rare experience you will remember.

This film appears to be aplauded by its own countrymen and derided by everyone else. I can only say, as an Englishman that I agree with my French counterparts! This film for me was a delightful surprise! It has to be viewed within the context in which it was made and anyone who thinks that the musical numbers are poor has really missed the point! The film captures in scenes of wonderfully absurd comedy, a rehearsal for a french revue in a second rate variety theatre. It was great fun to see Loius de Funes in an early supporting role, but I particularly like the whole feel of the film. At its most realistic, it really captures the feeling of being there in the theatre while chaos rules the rehearsal.

Many of the pieces are hilariously funny, not least the bathing hut scene on the beach and the monks finale piece. For anyone who cringes at the nudity, I was delighted to find it all left in, realistically and is it should be! Also nice to see Agfacolour, though I have to confess that the print I saw was a slightly faded Eastman colour print form my own archive. Never-the-less, a delight and one to be accepted for what it is. It is a delightful time capsule period piece and I loved it!

Ouch! What were they thinking? This movie is so bad, it's scary. It's strictly a showcase for beautiful women. In fact, its only originality is probably the amount of nudity for the time.

Louis De Funès' talent is wasted. He's reduce to imitate a chicken. Which is funny, but to carry it on for the entire film is absurd and stupid. Oh! and by the way... the musical numbers are awful. Skip this one, by all mean.

Out of 100, I give it 51. That's good for 0 star out of 4.

Seen at home, in Toronto, on November 5th, 2002.