Casimir (1950)

Casimir is a French film comedy first released in 1950, directed by Richard Pottier.  The film stars Fernandel, Germaine Montero, Bernard Lajarrige and Jacqueline Duc.  It has also been released under the title: Three Feet in a Bed.  Our overall rating for this film is: good.


Success may so far have eluded him in his chosen career but Casimir is certain that he will soon make enough money as a travelling salesman to allow him to marry his beloved fiancée.  The reason for his confidence is the miniature vacuum cleaner – the answer to every housewife’s prayer.  Things do not start out well for Casimir as he tries to foist this latest marvel on a wary world.  Doors that are opened to him are quickly slammed in his face.  Entering a mental institution, he is almost certified as a madman. Then he is mistaken for a well-known abstract artist by a hot-blooded woman from South America.  She is determined that he, Casimir, is the love of her life and would rather kill him than let another woman possess him.  Not a very promising start...

When he signed on for Casimir, Fernandel had two decades of film acting behind him.  Although in that time he had worked with the finest - for example, writer-director Marcel Pagnol, for whom he made several films, not least The Well-Digger’s Daughter - he didn’t really need a top director to make popular films.  This may be just as well, for Richard Pottier was a journeyman at best.  Like Michael Curtiz and Alexander Korda, he hailed from Hungary, but that was about all they had in common.  

As journeymen go, however, Pottier was certainly competent, as the five films he shot for Continental testify.  With Casimir, all he had to do was turn Fernandel loose, ensure the lens cap was off and point the camera at him.  Once again, Fernandel is an inept employee who is just this side of being a complete buffoon.  He’s not having much luck selling vacuum cleaners when he is mistaken for a painter of abstract art by an eccentric woman who decides he is the answer to a maiden’s prayer.  From that point, there is only one way to go and Fernandel does his best to make us enjoy the ride.

© Leon Nock (London, England) 2010 


Whilst it now feels dated and painfully lacking in sophistication, this lightweight comedy was an appropriate vehicle for popular actor-comedian Fernandel, allowing him once more to delight his audience with his portrayal of a likeable simpleton who has a knack of getting into trouble.   The rambling narrative, bland characterisation and lazy direction do little to endear the film to a modern audience, but Fernandel’s unfaltering charm and some inspired visual jokes – particularly the "three feet in the bed" gag – just about make the film worth watching.

© James Travers 2008

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