Jo is a French film comedy first released in 1971, directed by Jean Girault.  The film stars Louis de Funès, Claude Gensac, Michel Galabru, Bernard Blier and Guy Tréjan.  It has also been released under the title: Joe: The Busy Body.  Our overall rating for this film is: good.


Under the pretence of researching his next thriller play, writer Antoine Brisebard consults his friend Adrien Colas over how to commit the perfect murder.  For some time, Antoine has been the victim of an unscrupulous backmailer, Monsieur Jo, and he has finally decided to take action to prevent Jo from revealing the scandalous past of his dear wife.  One night, Antoine arranges for Jo to pay him a visit, intending to shoot him dead and bury his body in the foundations for a new gazebo.  With a few glitches along the way, the scheme goes off as planned.  Then, soon after, Antoine discovers that Jo was previously killed by someone else and that the body that is buried beneath the gazebo is not Jo’s at all.  If Antoine didn’t kill Jo, who exactly did he kill..?

Comedy giant Louis de Funès is on fine form in this well-oiled thriller spoof, one of his most respectable collaborations with director Jean Girault.  The film combines the black comedy of the play on which it is based with some very effective visual gags, playing very much to De Funès’ strength as a comedian.  A natural stage performer, Louis de Funès is generally better utilised by films that adhere most closely to the form of a theatrical play – consider, for example, his extraordinary performances in Oscar (1967) and L’Avare (1979).  Here, he stars opposite Claude Gensac, who played his on-screen wife in the early Gendarmes films, and a magnificent Bernard Blier, that stalwart of the comedy thriller genre.  The film has some similarities with (and may well have been influenced by) Hitchcock’s The Trouble With Harry (1955), a better known black comedy about a body that refuses to stay buried.

© James Travers 2005

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