Jo (1971)

Antoine Brisebard, a famous comedy playwright, is struggling with financial difficulties and is preparing to sell his country villa to an English couple. What no one knows, however, is that... See full summary »

Director:

Jean Girault

Writers:

Alec Coppel (play), Myra Coppel (play)

Stars:

Louis de Funès, Claude Gensac, Michel Galabru

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Louis de Funès	...	Antoine Brisebard
Claude Gensac	...	Sylvie Brisebard
Michel Galabru	...	Tonelotti l'entrepreneur
Bernard Blier	...	Inspecteur Ducros
Guy Tréjan	...	Maître Adrien Colas
Ferdy Mayne	...	Mister Grunder
Yvonne Clech	...	Cécile Grunder
Florence Blot	...	Madame Cramusel
Micheline Luccioni	...	Françoise
Christiane Muller	...	Mathilde la bonne
Paul Préboist	...	L'adjudant de gendarmerie
Jacques Marin	...	Andrieux
Jean Valmence	...	Le représentant
Carlo Nell	...	Plumerel
Dominique Zardi	...	Le Duc

Storyline

Antoine Brisebard, a famous comedy playwright, is struggling with financial difficulties and is preparing to sell his country villa to an English couple. What no one knows, however, is that Brisebard is actually a victim of blackmail since his wife Sylvie, a famous actress, is the daughter of a notorious robber-murderer. His extortionist is a malevolent criminal only known as Jo, who visits him often to pick up his hush money. But faced with certain ruin, Brisebard is preparing to do away with Jo once and for all, planning his deed under the guise of him trying to write the script for a crime play and consulting his friend, attorney Colas, for ideas of how to efficiently get rid of the body. He finally takes up the offer of one Tonelotti to erect a garden pavillon, whose foundation would provide the ideal hiding place for the corpse. On the night Jo is scheduled to arrive for his next payment, Brisebard awaits the arrival with a gun but is not able to pull the trigger, drops the gun ...

---

Plot Keywords:

pavilion | couple | corpse | blackmail | hidden corpse | 

---

Genres:

Comedy

---

Details

Country:

France

Language:

French English

Release Date:

1 September 1971 (France)

Also Known As:

Jo

Company Credits

Production Co:

Trianon Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

85 min 79 min (DVD)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The very unusual, almost "Bondian" tone of the score by Raymond Lefevre, was strongly suggested by the American part of the production.

---

Connections

Featured in Edición Especial Coleccionista: Jo, un cadáver revoltoso (2010)

User Reviews

A very funny story with a cast of excellent actors.

This movie is adapted from a play and is the kind of high paced funny movies where one joke follows the next one. The text is excellent which is rare in comedies which tend to be vulgar. None there. The cast, as far as I am concerned Louis de Funes is in great shape but he is surrounded by even better comedians like Bernard Blier which I really enjoy so much in almost all his movies. The soundtrack reaches levels that would have made it good enough for a James Bond movie.

This movie is full of intelligence and highlights the quality of those great comedies, made in France, that were so common in those days.

I really laughed when I saw it in one Montreal's theatre when it came out and I still laughed as much recently watching it again.

Now, lets hope that this movie gets a DVD release soon.