Film Review
Based on play of the same title by Léon Gandillot, a contemporary
of Georges Feydeau,
Ferdinand le noceur was a perfect comedy vehicle
for the young Fernandel during his meteoric rise to fame in the early 1930s.
The play itself isn't much to write home about, an out-dated relic of the
Belle Époque that still looks pretty dated even after being given
a considerable makeover for a 1930s cinema audience. The film is rescued
by an impressive ensemble of great comedy performers who do their utmost
to prevent the whole thing from ending up looking like a staid museum piece.
It's a pity the same can't be said for the film's director René Sti,
who merely directs it as a pretty conventional stage play, with the result
that it appears painfully slow and static at times.
A victim of anti-Semitism, René Sti's career suffered in the 1940s
and he only managed to direct a handful of films (most pretty well forgotten)
before completely fading from sight. He started out as an assistant
to Fritz Lang on
Das
Testament des Dr Mabuse (1933) and directed the French-language version
of this classic German thriller. His subsequent output included the
first sound adaptation of Paul Féval's historical novel
Le
Bossu in 1934 and his one other collaboration with Fernandel,
La Porteuse
de pain (1935).
Fernandel's early films broadly divide into two categories - those in which
he is part of a great comedy ensemble, and those in which he is unequivocally
the star.
Ferdinand le noceur is interesting in that it falls
into both categories. Whilst being part of a remarkable group of irresistibly
funny eccentrics (André Alerme, Félix Oudart, Pauline Carton,
Romain Bouquet), Fernandel also imposes his star persona and make himself
the focus of the play without resorting to his customary comic excesses.
His vocal talents make the film's main musical number
Quand on est obligeant
a likeable show-stopper, and his penchant for slapstick is put to good use
in some of the film's more memorable comedy routines - the highpoint coming
when he is turfed out of a brothel in his long johns and literally makes
an exhibition of himself.
Near the start of her incredibly prolific career, Paulette Dubost shows her
worth as a fine comedic performer and is irresistible as the Modern Miss
who refuses to be tamed. (Any similarities between this play and one
written by William Shakespeare are of course purely coincidental.)
A succession of almost surreal comedy digressions (the most bizarre being
Pauline Carton fencing with Félix Oudart) amply make up for the fairly
unimaginative plot and half-hearted mise-en-scène, but whilst
Ferdinand
le noceur delivers quite a few laughs it is hardly Fernandel's most memorable
film. The rising star of French film comedy would be far better served
by his subsequent films -
Jim
la Houlette (1935),
Un
de la légion (1936) and
François Ier (1937).
© James Travers 2016
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Film Synopsis
An employee in a pharmaceuticals laboratory, Ferdinand is obsessed with coming
up with a pill that will allow easily cowed men like him to overcome their
crippling timidity. For his boss, Monsieur Fourageot, he has nothing
but contempt. Since his wife's tragic death, Fourageot has lived the
life of a wayward bachelor, chasing after any piece of skirt that comes his
way. Libertine though he is, Fourageot has absolutely no intention
of allowing his daughter Paulette to follow his example. Fearing that
his darling child may be taking after him, he has her consigned to a strictly
run boarding school managed by a former military officer, Paturin, and his
equally fastidious wife. Unfortunately, Paulette's wild temperament
is more than the Paturins can cope with. Fearing she may be a bad influence
on the other young ladies under their care, they soon decide she must be
expelled. This new comes as a terrible shock to Fourageot, who sees
his daughter's return to the fold as a threat to his own extravagant lifestyle.
Fourageot has no option but to marry Paulette off to the first eligible bachelor
he can find. The problem is that he must find someone who is capable
of taming his daughter, a man whose chastity is beyond question. He
has the ideal man: Ferdinand! Not knowing what he is letting himself
in for, Ferdinand travels down to the Paturins' school and begins his courtship
of Paulette, having been misled by his employer into thinking that she is
a model of virtue. It doesn't take long for the two young people to
see that they are totally ill-suited. Paulette finds her prospective
beau unbearably dull and moralistic, and she falls short of Ferdinand's ideal
by several leagues. By now, the rumour has begun to circulate in the
region that Ferdinand is the most uninhibited of revellers. Wherever
he goes, married women (most well past their best) fall at his feet, and
the unfortunate young man only adds credence to these rumours by walking
around town in his underwear after being evicted from a house of ill repute.
When she gets to hear of Ferdinand's disreputable behaviour Paulette is in
a state of rapture: at last she has found the man who is capable of making
her the happiest of wives!
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.