Quelques messieurs trop tranquilles (1973) - film review

The few remaining inhabitants of the rural village of Loubressac lament the decline of their community.  After making a desperate appeal for tourists to visit their area, they are not entirely happy when a group of hippies lands on their doorstep.  The owner of a château allows the hippies to occupy land on her estate to annoy her tenant, a crook named Gérard, who has just returned to the village.  When a man is found murdered, suspicion falls immediately on the hippies.  However, four of the villagers are convinced of their innocence and set about unmasking the real culprit…

The hippy movement was almost a thing of the past by the time director Georges Lautner came to make this film.  Although primarily a parody thriller, of the kind that was so successful for Lautner in the mid-1960s, Quelques messieurs trop tranquilles is also a satire on hippy life and the parochial attitudes of French country folk.  The comedy thriller format looks distinctly tired compared with Lautner’s earlier offerings, such as Les Tontons flingueurs (1963) and Ne nous fâchons pas (1966), but there are one or two memorable visual gags.   In the midst of a generally lacklustre cast there is at least one young actress with some promise – Miou-Miou, in one of her first film appearances.

© James Travers 2006

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