Les Cinq sous de Lavarède (1939) - film review

Armand Lavarède’s greatest pleasure is to recount his adventurous exploits to anyone who wants to hear.  But how much is true and how much is wild exaggeration?  He is put to the test when a cousin leaves him a fortune in his will.  To inherit, Lavarède must travel around the world in two months with just 25 centimes in his pocket.  If he fails, the money will pass to Murlington and Bouvreuil, the two men who have been appointed to ensure the terms of the will are respected.   Murlington’s daughter Aurett has taken a fancy to Lavarède and resolves to help him, whilst the nasty Mr Bouvreuil is determined to stop him at any cost…

The imminent outbreak of World War II didn’t deter Fernandel from throwing his all into this rip-roaring adventure farce, a kind of “Around the World in Eighty Days On A Shoestring Budget”.  (The great horse-faced comedian would later make a small cameo appearance in Michael Anderson’s sumptuous World in Eighty Days, 1956 – a far better film, but nowhere near as funny as this one).  An expansive plot and plenty of location photography gives Les Cinq sous de Lavarède a surprisingly modern, almost epic, feel compared with Fernandel’s other studio-bound comedies of this era.

The film is based on a story by Paul d’Ivoi, a popular French writer of the late 19th/early 20th Century, whose works – often fantasy adventures of the Jules Verne variety – have frequently been adapted for film and theatre.  Significantly, this is one of the very few French films which features the Tour de France (including the greatly missed finale in the Parc des Princes velodrome).


© James Travers 2005

Write a review for this film...

What do you think of this film?