Le Gendarme à New York (1965) - film review

The police brigade of St-Tropez is to represent France at an international confere on policing in New York.  Chef Ludovic Cruchot, his adjutant Gerbier, and their resourceful gendarmes set off by steam boat, unaware that Cruchot’s daughter, Nicole, has smuggled herself aboard.  Arriving in New York, the gendarmes find themselves up against overwhelming cultural and language barriers.  Fougasse ends up in hospital whilst Cruchot,  imagining that he keeps seeing his daughter, has to see a psychiatrist.  Meanwhile, Nicole is becoming a national celebrity...

The second in the famous Gendarme series continues the hilarious antics of the notorious St-Tropez gendarmes, this time transplanted to the other side of the Atlantic.  Despite some production problems (Jean Lefèvre was unable to appear in the location filming in New York and is hence absent for most of the film), this makes a more than satisfactory sequel to Le Gendarme de Saint-Tropez.

Louis de Funès, as ever, gives great value as the comic police chief, having built a great comic rapport with his side-kick Michel Galabru.  This brand of fast-moving slap-stick suits him perfectly, which probably accounts for the enduring popularity of the Gendarme series.  The high point of this film is a brilliantly choreographed, and side-splittingly funny, parody of West Side Story.

© James Travers 2001

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