Le Grand escogriffe (1976) - film review

Emile Morland is a failed theatrical impresario who decides to apply his talents for invention to more lucrative ends.   He persuades his former associate, Aristide, and an out-of-work actress, Amandine, to lend their services in his latest foolproof scam, which will net them a cool six hundred million dollars.  The plan is simple, child’s play in fact.  All they have to do is to kidnap the infant son of the wealthy banker Rifai and substitute it with another child borrowed from an acquaintance.  The scheme backfires when Rifai refuses to pay the ransom, not because he is short of cash, because he prefers the angelic little boy that Fate has give him in exchange for the messy brat that he sired.

Claude Pinoteau’s follow-up to his massively popular La Gifle (1974) was this lacklustre comedy which is only just salvaged by Yves Montand’s bravura turn as a kind of gentleman Arthur Daley.  Only an unimaginative pre-school child with a particularly low IQ could fail to anticipate the plot twist on which the film depends for its biggest laugh. Screenwriter Michel Audiard shows little, if any, of his talent for comedy, and the lack of any decent gags becomes irksome way before we reach the film’s mid-point.  Pinoteau was far more successful as a director of thrillers, such as the stylish La 7ème cible (1984), although he scored a palpable hit with the teen comedy La Boum (1980).  Le Grand escogriffe was the one notable misfire in his short but distinguished filmmaking career.

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