Le Gendarme à New York

"The Troops in New York" is the second opus of the "Gendarme" series that started a year prior in St Tropez and that had catapulted Louis de Funès to the top of the box- office, a place he'd never be dethroned from till his death in 1983. Indeed, even his "lesser" movies would garner at least two-million viewers. He's still in terms of theater's grosses the most successful French actor of all time and 1965 was another defining year of his profitability, proving that 1964 was no lucky strike.

He starred in three of the most successful movies, including two sequels: "The Sucker" with Bourvil, the sequel of the first "Fantomas" and then he wore the gendarme uniform playing his from-now-on forever iconic Maréchal des Logis Ludovic Cruchot in "The Troops in New York". Of course in terms of viewers and grosses, these films were successful, but success is all relative a notion and De Funès' success, while consistent on the commercial level, had its share of ups and downs as far as the critical reception went. "The Sucker" was a commercial and critical success, and there's a reason why it attracted twice more viewers than "The Troops in New York".

Louis de Funès is one of the best comedic actors of all time and the best of his generation, there is just one point where you can't take too much of his antics. "The Sucker" was based on the pairing between De Funès and Bourvil, the sneaky bourgeois sympathetic villain with an Aesopian arc and the lovable loser who proves to be not such an idiot after all. The balance was there, and it was fun to switch back and forth between these two schools of laughs, culminating with the iconic laugh-along ending. That was the stuff for cinematic memories. "The Sucker" wasn't consistently funny but at least, it could afford a plot, "The Troops in New York" took for granted the popularity of the previous film and built on it, let's say it wasn't on the level of the Empire State Building, not even the highest dune in St Tropez.

Sure, there are many moments to enjoy, a nice rib steak recipe à la Galabru, a few well-done over-the-top reactions by De Funès and a hilarious "do you speak English?" delivered to an American woman and naturally, the iconic "My Taylor is rich" that became a French pop-culture trope of basic English learning. The whole exchange about "who's got the most beautiful flowers" is another hilarious moment to count on. That scene is perhaps the highest spot of the movie but it occurs in the first ten minutes, not that laughs never ensue during the film but talk about a missed opportunity when you have six funny Frenchmen in the most American of all the cities and all you can come up is some "plot" about a missing daughter and a climax in a construction site outside New York.

You can't help but feel a bit cheated by the premise, the film is like a can of soda you kept on shaking and shaking but no one ever opens it and by the time someone does, you just have a little "pschiiit". Another remarkable example is when looking for his daughter, Cruchot meets the crazy driving nun in the middle of New York, she's just here to participate to some nun congress, (which is an amusing gag given the reason of the troops' presence in America) but she doesn't offer him a ride. Really? My guess is that they probably intended to make a car chase in New York but the big Apple isn't St Tropez (budget-wise) but still, what a wasted opportunity, very illustrative though as even the Troop has no more reason to be in New York than the nun since the main narrative was about Cruchot trying to find his daughter.

Genevieve Grad, as Nicole, always illuminates the screen, she's beautiful, pretty, witty and seems to be the only match to her patriarchal father, but she's not funny, and when you have four fine comedic actors like Christian Marin, Jean Lefebre, Guy Grosso and Michel Modo (who'd become the voice of Mr. Burns, and Seymour Skinner), you just don't lock them in a lousy hotel or hospital room to inflict us a scene where Nicole is courted by an Italian Carabiniere or some cat-and-mouse father-and-daughter game in a film that could have been a roller-coaster of laughs. This is why Oury's movies worked better De Funès, he never carried the movie alone, always another comedian to share the screen, Girault got six of them and could only use Galabru.

With Galabru playing the straight man, or let's say, chewing less of the scenery, the "Troops" series was promised to last and it did but its appeal is almost dependent on sentimental values while Oury's movies have aged better. They worked because Oury was a true admirer of De Funès and knew all the comedic talent of the world couldn't work without one element of straightness. Many Girault's movies would work better because they would star Claude Gensac as De Funès' wife or would feature a screen-partner. Of course the "Troops" series was a great blessing for De Funes, it allowed him to create his archetypal character of the authoritarian figure, odious with the underlings while kissing the butts of his superiors but even this shtick grows rapidly tiresome.

New York underwent a severe drought in the middle of the 60's and so does this film, the tailor might be rich, the flowers beautiful, but this is a beautiful film far from being rich in gags and laughs. I suspect if it wasn't for "The Sucker", maybe spectators might have grown tired of De Funès, he couldn't just be typecast as Cruchot.

...and not the worst.There are good reasons to watch it: -It was the time of "the France" a luxury liner ,where a lot of of the action takes place.

-Geneviève Grad is well cast as De Funès's daughter .She is very anxious to accompany her dear dad to New-York but as she is not invited ,she 's a stowaway on the ship .

-Her father "seems " to see her sometimes ,but he will never realize she 's been with him all along the way.

-On the streets of the Big Apple,there's a funny spoof on "West Side Story".

Jean Girault was no genius.But his movie is quite entertaining.

Don't question the decision to take Funes character from Saint Tropez to New York and America. You will spoil the fun you can have. With him the usual suspects come with him (including a nun from the first movie, with almost no function other than being an inside joke for those who've seen the first movie) to the US. Including his dear daughter, which is to be expected.

And again she takes center stage one way or the other. Story wise this seems at least a bit more tight and coherent than the first one, but that is up to you to decide. This also has things like "yellow-face" and stereotypes. You sure shouldn't be too politically correct or easily offended to have some fun with this one ...

THE TROOPS IN NEW YORK is a comedy film, which is dovetailed between a petty bourgeois problem, charming crime and satirical idiocy. This is the first sequel of sympathetic gendarmes from Saint-Tropez.

The gendarmes of St. Tropez are invited to New York City to a law enforcement conference. They are supposed to travel alone without spouses or children. The gendarmes are seriously preparing for the conference and the challenges that await them there. However, Cruchot's daughter Nicole wants to go to New York as it may be her only chance. He forbids her to go because disobeying an order may hurt his career. Nicole is a rebellious beauty who does not listen his father just yet .... therefore an adventure in New York can begin...

An abundance of a cheap humor is seasoned with parodic scenes, which should guarantee a good time. However, I think that, hilarious problems with the language barrier, a rebellious daughter and a rivalry with an opposing camp are not sufficient to demonstrate the petty-bourgeois confusion in a big city. Simply, it lacks the charm of the gendarme, which is closely associated with the scenery of Saint-Tropez. Extremely comic plots can not reach a culmination.

Louis de Funès as Ludovic Cruchot is again consistent with his energetic performances. Michel Galabru as warrant officer Jérôme Gerber gets more space next to Cruchot, and still, he is subordinate in comic pursuit of the rebellious Nicole. Geneviève Grad as Nicole Cruchot is witty beauty, who still can not cope with hilarious appearances of her patriarchal father. Other characters are quite closed. That's wrong.

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.