Anche i gangster mangiano lenticchie

Paul and Thérèse are not lucky with their cafés :their latest is not far from an airport ,and every time a plane tales off or lands, the bottles ,the glasses, the tables, everything, shake.Despondent ,they leave for Marseille where a good deal awaits ; "Aux bons enfants" (=the good children's) is a nice place whose customers include a police captain (Michel Galabru).

But this is a façade :they discover that a passage in their basement leads to a brothel whose madam is Max (Ginette Leclerc ,the bad gal of the forties ); worse, drug-traffickers use their café as a hub to bring and pick up cocaine (in boxes of calissons =lozenge shaped sweets made of ground almonds,made in the south of France).But the neighbors have worse to tell them: the café is often sold by a widow.Paul , supported by wife, decides to strike back.

Michel Serrault and Rosy Varte -who had played Molière's "le bourgeois gentilhomme " together some years back - have a strong presence ,and in spite of the spate of misfortunes which keep falling on them , show stamina and resilience .

The movie loses steam in its last third ,with the predictable free-for-all ,but the date of the settlement of scores is a smart choice.