Allez France! (1964) - film review

On the day before he is due to get married, a Frenchman named Henri Martineau decides to make full use of his last few hours of bachelor freedom by attending the France v. England rugby match at Twickenham.  Naturally, Henri cannot tell his fiancée the truth, so he pretends to be away visiting a sick aunt.  If only he had known how much trouble would result from that one little white lie...  During the football match, Henri is hit by another supporter and loses his two front teeth.  Finding a dentist in London at the weekend is not easy but luckily Henri manages to find one who can patch him up.  After the operation, the dentist tells him that he must not open his mouth for two hours.  In the waiting room, Henri cannot help slipping into the uniform of a policeman who has taken his place in the dentist’s chair.  Mistaken for a real policeman, Henri accidentally comes to the rescue of the actress Diana Dors when she is attacked by a maniac.   The publicity-conscious Miss Dors insists on being photographed with Henri, but realising that this will expose his subterfuge the  Frenchman takes flight.  Before he knows what is happening, he has helped a notorious crook escape from police custody and soon has the whole London police force on his back. Henri’s adventures are far from over...

After the success of their earlier collaboration, La Belle Américaine (1961), Robert Dhéry and Pierre Tchernia pooled their collective talents to serve up another sparkling madcap comedy, this time assisted by a bevy of some of the best-loved British actors and comedians of the period.  Allez France! (a.k.a. The Counterfeit Constable) is arguably the maddest and therefore most enjoyable of Dhéry’s film comedies, and the one that has stood the test of time best.  What other film can boast such an unlikely ensemble as Diana Dors, Colin Blakely, Arthur Mullard, Colette Brosset, Jean Lefebvre, Jean Carmet and Bernard Cribbins?

Dhéry himself gets to play the main character, a sort of cross-between Jacques Tati and Mr Bean who is mistaken for a British bobby and gets caught up in all manner of improbable escapades in swinging sixties London.  One minute Dhéry is saving the beautifully buxom Diana Dors from a sinister stalker, the next he is smuggling a shifty Arthur Mullard out of a police station.  Unable to open his mouth because he has just had his two front teeth replaced, Dhéry must somehow evade the unwelcome attention of a publicity hungry Miss Dors and the entire London constabulary if he is to get back to France in time and intact for his wedding.  Ee, they don’t make ’em like they used ter.

At the time, Robert Dhéry was France’s most distinguished purveyor of zany slapstick.  In the late 1940s, he and his wife Colette Brosset founded Les Branquignols, a remarkably successful troupe of comedians, musicians and other assorted performers which included such luminaries as Jacqueline Maillan, Louis de Funès, Michel Serrault, Jean Lefebvre and Jean Carmet.  In the 1950s, Les Branquignols (France’s answer to the Crazy Gang) proved to be a hit both in London and New York with their longrunning show La Plume de Ma Tante.  The troupe also featured in two hit French films, Branquignol (1949) and Ah! Les Belles Bacchantes (1954). Dhéry began his film directing career on the back of these successes and delivered some of the most commercially successful French comedies of all time.  His biggest hit was Le Petit baigneur (1968), which attracted over five and half million spectators, a reflection of the popularity of its lead actor Louis de Funès.  Allez France! (1964) was by no means a let down - it drew an audience of 2.6 million in France and was also popular in the UK.

In the 1960s, Anglo-French co-productions were hardly a rarity, but Allez France! is one of the most successful bi-national comedies of its kind, perhaps the most perfect synthesis of Gallic and Anglo-Saxon humour cinema has so far given us.  This was a time when France and Britain were on the best of terms, before the spirit of entente cordiale became soured by Général de Gaulle’s anti-British rhetoric and refusal to allow Britain to join the European Common Market.  (There is a deliciously wicked joke at de Gaulle’s expense in the film.)  Allez France! is a film that could only have been made in the early 1960s and it evokes the optimism and carefree joie de vivre of the time as well as any French or British comedy of the period.

Today, Allez France! is a superb piece of escapist fun, tirelessly funny and not the slightest bit afraid of appearing silly.  Whilst many of the gags are of the familiar slapstick variety (and have the nametags of Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin clearly visible on them), some are genuinely inspired and irresistibly funny, particularly the spoof travelogue that starts the film (presenting a typically Gallic view of London and the English).  Trivia fans should note that this is the film in which the elfin Mark Lester made his screen debut, just before he cropped up in Truffaut’s Fahrenheit 451 (1966) and found stardom in Carol Reed’s Oliver! (1968).  Allez France! was also the title adopted by BBC Radio for its splendid 1970s French language course, to which yours truly is forever indebted.   At a time when the rift between the UK and the rest of Europe could hardly be greater, it is good to be reminded that there was once a time when France and Britain were the happiest of bedfellows and did not spend all their time trading cheap insults.  What Europe needs today is a few less Général de Gaulles and many more Robert Dhérys!

© James Travers 2012

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