Les Charlots font l’Espagne is a French film comedy first released in 1972, directed by Jean Girault.  The film stars Gérard Rinaldi, Jean Sarrus, Gérard Filipelli, Jean-Guy Fechner and Gérard Croce.  It has also been released under the title: Charlots Go to Spain.  Our overall rating for this film is: mediocre.


Jean-Guy, Phil, Gérard and Jean can hardly wait to take a break from their job on the Paris underground (and neither can the users of the Paris underground).  Pooling their resources, they book a package tour in Spain, a land flowing with tequila and senoritas.  No sooner have they arrived at their destination than they realise they have been swindled by the tour operator.  With no place to stay and no return fare, they end up having to work – with predictable consequences…

With three successful films under their belt, the popular musical comedians Les Charlots returned with a typically French take on The Summer Holiday From Hell.  The jokes are almost entirely of the visual kind – some are hilarious, others somewhat less so.  Jean Girault directed this film and doesn’t quite match up to Claude Zidi’s direction of the previous two Charlots cinematic adventures.  Whilst there’s a lot of fun – particularly for younger spectators – the lack of anything approaching a coherent thread narrative lessens the film’s entertainment value by several points.


© James Travers 2005

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