Le Corniaud

This was playing on French TV when I was on a recent trip to France. I laughed often during this marvelous old film. Even though my understanding of the language is minimal, I enjoyed this movie very much.

It has some wonderful physical comedy and the vintage cars and clothes are a treat to watch. The main character, who remains oblivious throughout the story, is a lovable clueless man. The crooks are appropriately stupid.

The camp shower scene is a classic. Even my husband laughed out loud during that ... a rare occurrence.

I wish I knew where to buy this film with English subtitles to watch it on a dreary winter night! It would a fun one to share with others to raise serotonin levels for all.

Of course this movie is dated (43 years by now), but in my opinion that rather adds to the fun. We get to see quite many street scenes of the time, in France and Italy, and of course lots of cars from that period (including two Rolls-Royces). For railfans, even a "Picasso" railcar is thrown in...

I'm normally not a fan of Louis de Funès' frantic humour, which is also evidenced here, but he also has very admirable (non-talking) moments, like the Cadillac repair to a classical music score, or the muscle comparison in the camping shower.

In all, a turbulent comedy plus Italian road movie. Very lovely. The German DVD I bought (Universal 2008, titled "Louis, das Schlitzohr") also has English, Spanish and Dutch dubs, but not the original French soundtrack. Still, jolly good fun which made my Friday night perfect :^)

Bourvil plays the role of Antoine Marechal, a seemingly witless insurance salesman, who on his way to a vacation in Italy in his "deux cheveaux" automobile gets hit and has his car literally destroyed by the Rolls Royce of Leopold Saroyan, an affluent industrialist played by Louis de Funes. In order to make amends, Saroyan offers to have Marechal complete his trip to Italy in his convertible Cadillac (replete with a mobile phone and phonograph player - this is no less than twenty years before the advent of cellular phones and CD players). What Marechal doesn't know is that the Cadillac is also laden with stolen jewelry and drugs to be smuggled unwittingly by him across the border. What's more, Saroyan and two cronies as well as a smattering of other criminals tail Marechal during his journey across Italy and try to intercept or recharge, as the case may be, the merchandise on board the Cadillac. The hi-jinks in this movie are incredibly funny. This film is a worthy precursor to de Funes' "The Adventures of Rabbi Jacob."

Le Corniaud is a hilarious french movie from the sixties. It is the kind of feel good movie I like to watch on a sunny sunday afternoon.

The story is a ridiciulously funny crime story about a guy (Bourvil) who just left home for the holidays when he gets hit by a car (owned by De Funes). De Funes settles the case by providing Bourvil with a brand new cadilac to continue his holiday to Italy. Of course Bourvil does not know that he is now smuggling gold, heroin and a giant diamand hidden in that cadilac. The coupling of actors Louis de Funes and Bourvil is ace, the locations are beautiful (France and Italy during summer) and the fun is enormous. Sad thing only that Studio Canal just released all Louis de Funes movies on dvd without any subtitles... sham

This new team-up of Bourvil and Fufu have the same recipe that "La Grande Vadrouille". Bourvil is a kind, simple mind whereas Fufu is a Machiavellian crook. However, Bourvil always bores me while Fufu is a delight: he may be nervous but i can feel behind a great humanity and i really like his beat.

Here, they are filmed in Italy in the sixties and it's cool to see how it was like 50 years ago. Personally, i found this movie funnier than the one mentioned above but it lacks its dramatic background as well. The idea of someone who is spied who is spied is original and I don't think it has been used often. Maybe the great surprise of this movie should be its score because Delerue finds a lot of very great themes!

And the car repair scene at night edited with Rossini's TARENTELLA is one of the best comedy scene ever: it's crazy, funny, punchy, lyrical: everything is told without a single words: BRAVISSIMA🇮🇹