À toi de faire mignonne

This is a fine example to prove that the Franch can also make light movies. "À toi de faire, mignonne" is pure entertainment served elegantly like one star Gault Millau French cuisine. Lemmy Caution, a fine parody of the American heavy, moves about like a featherweight. He often gets into wrestling matches with beautiful ladies, and it always has the grace of a ballet dance. Perfect light movies like this one are definitely an art form and easily digested. Incidentally: The story culminates in a big brawl in a cheese factory, the appropriate dessert.

Friends of architecture watch carefully: In the first 10 minutes into the movie there is a small scene in front of the entrance facade of one of Le Corbusier's most famous private residences, the Villa Stein in Garches. I let you guess where this house is supposed to stand and which character resides in it.

Enjoyable, funny, 55 years after it was done. Thanks to Eddie Constantine. But the other actors are not at all inferior. Borderie knows how to tell a story. And the story is typical Lemmy Caution, even trivial, but the movie is still worth seeing. I just laughed a bit at some beating scenes, very well done. A reassignment with some pretty bloody ladies, one more dangerous than another: Gaia Germani, Christiane Minazzoli and, the most beautiful, Elga Andersen. Not a masterpiece, just easy and entertaining.

Of the Eddie Constantine films, this is only a fair example. It's still fun however and you could do a lot worse than this tongue-in-cheek adventure. Eddie reprises his role as Lemmy Caution, the hero of Peter Cheyney's novels, this time in search of a scientist supposedly kidnapped for his formula for a new lightweight solid fuel.

Constantine was the star of many adventures in France in the early sixties and the whiskey-obsessed Caution was one of his most popular roles. This particular film boasts a good cast which is where the most fun is derived but the whole thing is rather silly. I expect that by this time it was just a matter of giving the audience what they wanted without making things too complicated or heavy.

Director Bernard Boderie had previous experience working with Constantine in Women Are Like That and Ladies Man. Here he keeps the show moving but lets things slide uncomfortably into farce towards the end with a silly, slapstick fight scene used to finish off the gang. While the film is not an outright spoof the comedy comes often enough that no one would dare take it seriously, especially with Eddie winking or chatting into the camera several times.

The Paul Misraki score is fun and jazzy as one would expect although it's not as prevalent as one would hope. If you're in the mood for light fare this film will probably do but don't blame me if you're still hungry for a juicy spy flick afterwards.