Le gendarme en balade (1970)

Director:

Jean Girault

Writers:

Richard Balducci (characters)
Jean Girault (story)

Release Date:

28 October 1970 (France)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

The whole clique of Cruchot's police station is retired. Now he lives with his rich wife in her castle - and is bored almost to death...

Plot Keywords:

Police | Nun | Prank | Bathing Resort | Beach

Cast

Louis de Funès	...	Maréchal des logis-chef Ludovic Cruchot
Jean Lefebvre	...	Maréchal des Logis Lucien Fougasse
Guy Grosso	...	Maréchal des Logis Tricard
Michel Modo	...	Maréchal des Logis Berlicot
Nicole Vervil	...	Mme Gerber
France Rumilly	...	La mère supérieure
Yves Vincent	...	Le colonel de gendarmerie examinateur
Christian Marin	...	Maréchal des Logis Albert Merlot
Claude Gensac	...	Josépha Cruchot
Michel Galabru	...	Adjudant Jérôme Gerber
Sara Franchetti	...	Soeur Marie-Bénédicte
Ugo Fangareggi	...	Un hippie
Christor Georgiadis		(as Chris Georgiadis)
Christine Reynolds
René Berthier	...	Berthier, l'adjoint du colonel

Also Known As:

6 gendarmi in fuga (Italy)
The Gendarme Takes Off (International: English title)

Runtime:

Argentina:107 min | France:90 min | Netherlands:105 min

Country:

Italy | France

Language:

French

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Argentina:Atp | Netherlands:AL | Spain:T | Sweden:Btl

Filming Locations:

Saint-Tropez, Var, France

Company:

Société Nouvelle de Cinématographie (SNC)

Trivia:

70mm blow-up version released in Spain.

Movie Connections:

Features Le gendarme à New York (1965)

This IS the best of the gendarme movies (warning re plot points)

and one of De Funes' funniest ever. The fourth movie in the Gendarme series, this story finds the boys in forced retirement from the cushy police job at St. Tropez because they've become too old. When the Adjutant (Galabru) comes to visit De Funes to reminisce about old times, they discover that one of their old group (Fougasse) has had a head injury, has amnesia and is in an institution. They decide to get the old gang back and save him. But to save him, they decide to kidnap him and don their old Gendarme uniforms so they can bring back his memory of who he is. That's where the fun starts, because soon they are pursued by real Gendarmes for impersonating false Gendarmes. It's silly fun but very funny, thanks to brilliant performances by De Funes and Galabru.

Throughout the film, there are too many funny moments with De Funes to mention. In the early scenes, I died laughing when De Funes, now a rich man for having married into wealth, punches out his maid repeatedly in the face. De Funes' outlandish comedic rages have often been compared to the manic temper of Donald Duck. In another scene, De Funes is at his absolute best when mumbling incredible gibberish when he and his false Gendarmes get stoned on marijuana in a hippie commune, where they are forced to hide from the real Gendarmes pursuing them. But one of the very best scenes of De Funes in any movie is when the false Gendarmes arrive upon a traffic accident and can't help themselves; they must don their old uniforms and become cops again if only for a few moments. In this scene, De Funes uses a police whistle to clear the accident from the road and, from the sounds he makes, you can actually understand what words in cop language his cadence implies. It's unforgettable. The man was a genius and there will never be another.