Blague dans le coin (1963)
Directed by Maurice Labro

Film Review

The last decade of Fernandel's film career has an unmistakable sense of desperation about it.  With the comic actor's popularity set on a remorseless decline, Fernandel looked increasingly ill-at-ease in modern comedies that sought in vain to make him appeal to a new generation of cinemagoers.  No film illustrates this better than Blague dans le coin, a hopelessly misguided attempt to re-position Fernandel as the Jerry Lewis of French cinema (at least, that is what it appears to be).  An American-style comedy in a recognisably American setting, it falls flat as soon as Fernandel opens his mouth, so out of place is the comic that it is painful to watch him humiliate himself in such a hideous concoction consisting of a third rate thriller intrigue (which, by the way, is supposed to be funny) and nightclub cutaways that are as welcome as commercial breaks.  Would you believe that the dialogue was written by Charles Spaak?  Blague dans le coin was just one more nail in the coffin for Fernandel's ailing career.

Film Synopsis

The third-rate comic Jeff Burlington finds work at Eldorado, a casino in the American gambling town Las Perlas.   Here, Jeff is delighted to be reunited with his old friends Dolly and Betty, the latter of whom is the mistress of Sammy Bradford, the shady owner of the casino.  When Jeff's first night proves to be a disaster, his employer tells him to change act or leave town.  Meanwhile, Betty learns that Bradford is in truth the notorious gangster Golden Hand, who intends to liquidate his rivals Lippi and Steinberg so that he can rule the town unopposed.   When Jeff pokes fun at Lippi and Steinberg in his new act, the gangsters decide to eliminate him....