La grande vadrouille (1966)

User Rating:

7.9/10   

Director:

Gérard Oury

Writers:

Marcel Jullian (writer)
Gérard Oury (writer)

Release Date:

8 December 1966 (France)

Genre:

Comedy | War

Plot:

An allied bomberplane is shot down over Paris by the Germans. Its crew (Terry Thomas as a flight captain) land there by parachute...

Plot Keywords:

Paris | Escape | Sidecar | Nazi Uniform | Motorcycle

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Bourvil	...	Augustin Bouvet
Louis de Funès	...	Stanislas LeFort
Claudio Brook	...	Peter Cunningham
Andréa Parisy	...	Soeur Marie-Odile / Sister Marie-Odile
Colette Brosset	...	Germaine
Mike Marshall	...	Alan MacIntosh
Mary Marquet	...	Mère Supérieure
Pierre Bertin	...	Le grand-père de Juliette - propriétaire du guignol
Benno Sterzenbach	...	Major Achbach
Marie Dubois	...	Juliette
Terry-Thomas	...	Sir Reginald
Sieghardt Rupp	...	Lt. Stuermer
Reinhard Kolldehoff	...	Un caporal allemand
Helmuth Schneider	...	L'officier allemand dans le train (as Helmut Schneider)
Paul Préboist	...	Le pêcheur

Also Known As:

Don't Look Now - We're Being Shot At (USA)
Don't Look Now, We've Been Shot At

Runtime:

132 min | West Germany:101 min

Country:

France | UK

Language:

French | English | German

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Iceland:L | Australia:G | Finland:K-8 | Sweden:Btl | USA:G | West Germany:6 (nf) (w)

Filming Locations:

Avenue des Champs-Élysées, Paris 8, Paris, France

Company:

Les Films Corona

Trivia:

This movie was seen by 17 million people in France, a box-office record in that country until Titanic (1997).

Goofs:

Anachronisms: At the very beginning, we see an aerial shot of Paris; however we can clearly see modern buildings built in the 60s.

Quotes:

Sir Reginald: MacIntosh, why don't you get back to Canada!

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Cinemania: I anodos kai i ptosi tou Nazismou" (2008)

Soundtrack:

Rakoczy March S. 11

Why is this movie so funny?

Why is this movie so funny? And why is it universally judged to be so by people who don't understand French culture? I have asked myself this question while watching it for the Nth time and while asking myself why most Hollywood 'comedies' made today are not funny at all. I believe that the answer is that the basis of all comedy is to make fun of someone. Here, fun is made of sexual stereotypes, of the British, of the French and, most of all, of the Germans, Nazis in this case. Hollywood has become so politically-correct that it now only dares make fun of a WASP male in a business suit, and of no one else. Take the case of 'The Birdcage', a remake of the French comedy 'La cage aux folles' made some 20 years earlier. Being bilingual, I can testify that the original version is immensely more funny than the Hollywood remake. That is because the Hollywood bean-counters, who like to pass themselves off as artistic decision-makers, toned down most of the fun that had been made of homosexuals in the original movie. Ask Shakespeare or Moliere: the play or movie will be funny only if it pokes cruel fun at someone, provided it is not at you. Sorry for the politically-incorrect opinion.