Un drôle de paroissien (1963) - film review

The Lachesnaye family has never had to work for a living and the current generation have no intention of breaking this noble tradition, even though they are living under increasingly impoverished circumstances.  Facing eviction from the family home, Georges Lachesnaye goes to church to pray for help.  Hearing a woman putting some coins into a collection box, he suddenly has a brilliant idea – one which should solve his family’s financial worries forever…

This pleasing lightweight comedy features a giant of French comedy, Bourvil.  His gentle personality and natural humility is perfect for the part of the parishioner who really believes the Good Lord wants him to help himself to the church collection.  He is joined by Jean Poiret and Francis Blanche who also turn in some fine comic performances.

The film’s morality is more than a little questionable, as it gives a pretty comprehensive (and apparently foolproof) lesson on how to steal from the church collection box.  It is, for all that, a delightful film to watch, and most of its charm derives from the fact that the perpetrators of the crime in the film pursue their activities with such sublime innocence, with a morality of their own which makes their police pursuers appear to be the villains of the piece.  This switching of the moral perspective is an idea that has been pursued in earlier French detective thrillers such as Melville’s Le Doulos, but here it is given a unique and very entertaining comic slant.

© James Travers 2000

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