La Bourse et la vie is a French film comedy first released in 1966, directed by Jean-Pierre Mocky.  The film stars Fernandel, Jean Poiret, Heinz Rühmann, Marilù Tolo and Jean Carmet.  It has also been released under the title: Your Money or Your Life.  Our overall rating for this film is: good.


Lucien Pélépan, director of a major building firm in Toulouse, isn’t too pleased when he learns that three of his associates - the Robinhoude brothers – have managed to lose the ten million francs that he owes his notary, Laprise.  His only way out is to borrow money from his company, without his boss knowing.  He sends two of his underlings – Migue and Schmidt – to collect the money in cash from a bank and to meet up with him at the train station.  Try as they might, the three men fail to keep their rendezvous.  It was as if Fate was determined to prevent Pélépan from laying his hands on the money he desperately needs to save his delicate skin...

An exceptional cast elevates what might have been a routine run-around comedy into an enjoyable romp with wide appeal.  Somewhat lighter and far less subversive than some of Jean-Pierre Mocky’s later comedies, this is much more in the vein of the traditional burlesque French comedy, of the kind that drew large cinema audiences in the 1950s and ’60s.  There are some ebullient comic performances from Fernandel (one of last film roles) and Jean Poiret, and a seemingly endless array of cameo appearances from other great talents.   Whilst the film isn’t quite able to sustain its momentum right to the end, there are some memorable jokes along the way, such as the automobile roulette gag and the sequence where a car-driving priest relives the Road to Damascus story by dazzling all on-coming traffic with his headlights.   It’s escapist fun which guarantees a few good laughs and doesn’t insult your intelligence, whether you are a toddler or a nuclear physicist.

© James Travers 2008

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