Le Gendarme à New York

One should be reassured: The St-Tropez police, headed by adjutant Adolphe Gerber and Ludovic Cruchot, is deepest province, despite the fact that the international high-society gathers there, since the contact between the policemen and the tourists is zero, except f.ex. during the nudity seasons and when the celebrate their triumph at the end of the 6 "Gendarme" movies. Otherwise, Ludovic Cruchot is totally absorbed by the problems of with beautiful daughter, his jealous wife or the regular circulation violations at the rural road crossings.

And now, the St-Tropez police gets elected to represent the France police in New York. (The audience asks: If the St-Tropez police is already a bunch of comedians, how must the Paris police look like.) But this movie does not get stuck in the usual slapstick and that form of comedy for which I only now one adequate term - in German: Klamotte, and it is perhaps just to say that Louis De Funes was in Europe that comedian who played this oldest and historically lowest level of comedy on the highest possible level. For that he will for unforgotten for all times.

"Le Gendarme A New York" does not exhaust itself in the fragile border land between comedy and comicality, since it is a great poetry of displacement. As if in the big city of New York there would be no place for the hungry policemen to satisfy their hunger, they send commander Cruchot to a butcher shop in order to get a "beef-steak" (as it can be ordered even in the smallest French countryside bistros). Arrived at a shop around the corner, Cruchot learns that the partition of the meat in America and in Europe has nothing to do with one another (and therefore it makes no sense to ask for a special French cut of meat). He finds finally something like an "Entrecote" in a dubious shop, is happy to bring it back to the hotel, but stands at a crossing of those big American streets which frighten every European and - which is more tricky - are named in a different manner than European streets are, namely along the streets and not directly at the corner. So, if there is the crossing of A/B street, the European never knows in which direction A or B leads.

Then, in the hotel, they cook Cruchots "scavenged" meat. As rank-highest officer, Adjutant Gerber cooks it in the "Dubarry" way his wife uses to cook it. We witness that for the six men, the cooking process, although accomplished on a gas-cooker, is nothing less than a ceremony, and that for the cooking time, the hotel room ABC at X avenue in far remote New York has become a French Exclave. In order not to spoil the movie, let me just mention that Cruchot gets even arrested by the New York police - solely on the reason that he reacts as he is used to do in St-Tropez.

I am giving to all films from Gandarme series a 10 out of pure nostalgy. These days around New Year they played on TV all the films and though I can admit that now they do not seem as funny as they once were... still they gave you a really good feeling.

Scene with english lessons is really funny - my tailor is not rich / my flowers are beautiful

It's been a year since we last saw Cruchot (Louis de Funes) and his merry men. That makes it 1965, and the policemen of St. Tropez has been chosen to represent France in a Police Congress in New York.

Cruchot's daughter Nicole (Geneviève Grad) wants to see the USA, but her father will not allow her to join them. The young woman is determined though, and sneaks aboard the ferry. Trying not to let her father find out, she hides from him and without a cabin she sleeps on the deck.

There's a lot of action in this film, more than in the first, both on the ferry and after they have arrived in New York. The two most memorable scenes are first a quite clever little take on "West Side Story" and a baseball fight, that shows that Cruchot has thunder in his bat.

Also worth mentioning is a call back to the first film, where a nun repeats her part, this time in a car in New York!

Nicole finds a room at YWCA, where they don't want the presence of Cruchot.

All in all worth seeing, probably most for the viewers that were born around the time of the making of the film.

I started rewatching all the "Gendarme" movies, all classics from my youth, when you didn't have much movies to chose from. Movies starring Louis de Funès were a guarantee for success, although this one wasn't that good to be honest. The plot is sometimes a bit unconvincing. But if you like the mimics from Louis de Funès it's worth a watch. Michel Galabru is always good to watch as well. Le Gendarme à New York is just one of the weaker movies in this series. There are a couple singing scenes, one as an hommage to West Side Story, and another with his daughter singing, to me both of those scens just don't fit in the movie. This movie is from 1965 and it didn't age that well, at least not like the first movie.

The gendarme-series are all my favourites. This story is taking place in New York where there's is hold an international police-conference. Cruchot is searching for his daughter, who is matched up by a tabloidreporter with an Italian policeman. Hilarious are the chases in the cab and at a building construction. A tribute to the Westside story is the scene at the playground, where Cruchot gets involved with some streetgangs. Funes is as always the eyecatcher, but his daughter played by the lovely Genieviève Grad is also very funny. A typical European sixties comedy, with some Hollywood elements. 4 out of 5.