L’As des as (1982) - film review

Jo Cavalier is the coach for the French boxing team at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. On the train to Berlin, he is accosted by a ten year old Jewish boy, Simon, who asks for his autograph – previously Jo was a flying hero who served in the flying corps during World War I.  Simon was meant to join his family in Berlin, but when they do not meet him at the station, Jo takes him under his wing.   Simon’s family have narrowly evaded being arrested by the Nazis, and Jo manages to supply them with a limousine so that they can escape to Austria.  A short while later, Jo receives a telephone call from a distressed Simon, saying that his family have just been arrested.  Jo comes to the rescue in a plane supplied by a friendly German officer.  Having fended off armed German soldiers, persistent Gestapo officers and an over-attentive bear cub, Jo and Simon manage to rescue Simon’s family.  Once more, they head for the Alps, but they take a wrong turning.  Instead of heading for Austria, they end up in Hitler’s secret mountain retreat...

In a similar vein to Oury’s phenomenally successful 1966 film La Grande vadrouille, L’As des as is a lavish action-comedy set at the time of the Third Reich – this time on the eve of World War II during the Berlin Olympics of 1936.  This film is unashamedly aimed at the popular mass market but it is, for all that, a very well made film, with an attention to detail which surpasses the great majority of serious wartime dramas.  Its budget was 40 million French francs (a straggering sum at the time), but it does look as if much more was spent than that. 

Fast moving, with numerous well-staged action scenes (including a spectacular dog-fight involving authentic replicas of two WWI aircraft), and benefiting greatly from a well-written script, with some very funny lines, this is a hugely entertaining and diverting film.  There are a few scenes where the sentimentality gets steeped a little high, but this is a comparatively minor blemish in what is a thunderingly good film, genuinely great family entertainment for the masses.  Lovers of cuddly bear cubs will be particularly pleased.  Special credit must go to Rachid Ferrache, the angelic child actor who plays the Jewish orphan boy – his rapport with the Rambo-esque Belmondo is something quite special.

You might think that the subject matter of the film is hardly appropriate for a comedy.  However, Oury has a rare gift for making us see the funny side of some of humany’s worst mistakes, and this is most apparent in this film.  The Nazi regime was built on an utterly warped view of the world, and Oury merely adds a further level of distortion to show how ludicrous the Nazis were, particularly before their expansionist ambitions were revealed to the world.  Having the same actor playing both Hitler and his embittered sister is a wonderful touch, providing the best example of many where Hitler is deservedly ridiculed in this film.

Not surprisingly, given that it stars Jean-Paul Belmondo, France’s most popular actor at the time, the film was a huge success, attracting nearly half a million viewers in its first week in Paris alone (a record at the time), with over 70 thousand on the first day alone.  In total, the film sold nearly five and half million tickets in France, making this Belmondo’s most successful film (roughly equal with Le Cerveau, a.k.a. The Brain, Oury’s first collaboration with Belmondo). 

The film’s popularity antagonised the critics, who lambasted the film for stealing the potential audience for other films, most notably Jacques Demy’s Une chambre en ville, which was released at the same time as L’As des as.

One amusing anecdote about the making of this film concerns the spectacular chase scene where Belmondo and the young Rachid Ferrache are being pursued in their car by armed German soldiers on motorbikes.   In this scene, Belmondo was to apparently hand over the steering wheel to Rachid, so that he could climb into the car’s back seat to remove some spare car tyres which he could then throw in the path of the German soldiers.   What should have happened is that Belmondo, before relinquishing the steering wheel, activates a control which allows a stunt man, out of camera-shot, to take over driving the car.  What actually happened is that Belmodo caught his sleeve on the lever and the stunt man was unable to take control of the car.  As a result, the young Rachid ended up driving the car solo, miraculously coping with a perilously narrow and bending stretch of mountain road!  For his part, Belmondo undertook all of his own stunts except one – a parachute jump, which he left to an expert.

© James Travers 2001

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