Cadet-Rousselle (1954) - film review

France, 1789.  Cadet-Rousselle is in love with Isabelle, but such a match is impossible: he is of peasant stock and she is the mayor’s daughter.  Heading off for Paris and a new life, Cadet is attacked by bandits and left for dead.  A group of gypsies discover him and he agrees to join them, taking part in their public entertainments.  Within no time at all, Cadet is in love again – this time with the gypsy Violetta.  The gypsies’ leader gives Cadet a vital task to undertake – to deliver a message to someone of great importance in Paris.  Accompanied by the comical but helpful gypsy Jérôme, Cadet is soon captured by revolutionary police and is charged with being a royalist spy…

Swashbuckling action historicals were hugely popular in France in the 1950s, and André Hunebelle was presumably hoping to capitalise on the success of Christian-Jaque’s 1952 film Fanfan la Tulipe with his own early offering in the genre.   Cadet-Rousselle (1954) sees the improbable casting of François Périer as the lead romantic adventurer, aided and abetted (mostly abetted) by popular comic performer Bourvil.  Some distinguished character actors, such as Noël Roquevert, and some attractive ingénues, such as Dany Robin, complete the cast line-up.

It has to be said that Cadet-Rousselle is by no means the best example of its kind, and Hunebelle would do a far better job with his later historicals, Le Bossu (1959) and Le Capitan (1960).  Whilst a great film actor in his own right, François Périer appears misplaced as an action hero, having neither the physique or charisma of a Gérard Philipe or a Jean Marais.  By contrast, Bourvil is very much in his element as the cowardly buffoon, a role he would reprise a number of times in the years that followed.   The main weaknesses with Cadet-Rousselle, however, lie in its uninspired direction and its pedestrian, if not to say tedious, storyline.  Lacking a strong driving narrative and the kind of energy you would expect of a decent swashbuckler, the film feels pretty flat when compared with other, far better, examples such as Fantan la Tulipe.

© James Travers 2006

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