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Les Cinq sous de Lavarède
1939 Comedy
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Credits
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Director: Maurice Cammage
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Script: Jean Rioux, René Wheeler, Jean-Louis Bouquet, based on a story by Paul d'Ivoi et Henri Chabrillat
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Photo: Georges Clerc, Jean-Paul Goreaud, Edouard Meyer
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Music: Casimir Oberfeld
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Cast: Fernandel (Armand Lavarède),
Josette Day (Miss Aurett Murlington),
Andrex (Jim Strong),
Jean Dax (Sir Murlington),
Marcel Vallée (Bouvreuil),
Jeanne Fusier-Gir (Princess Djali),
Mady Berry (La concierge),
Félix Oudart (Le capitaine du navire),
Jean Temerson (Tartinovitch),
Henri Nassiet (Jack),
Albert Duvalaeix (Le notaire,
maître Panabert)
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Country: France
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Language: French
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Runtime: 125 min; B&W
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Aka: The Five Cents of Lavarede
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Summary
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…
Review
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
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