Gargousse (1938)
Directed by Henry Wulschleger

Film Review

At first sight, Gargousse, the last but one film that director Henry Wulschleger made with the enormously popular comic performer Bach, seems to be a banal little comedy, but look more closely and you will see something far more interesting.  The anti-authority tomfoolery which Bach and Wulschleger indulged in with such glee in their lively garrison comedies (Tire-au-flanc, Le Train de 8 heures 47, Le Cantinier de la coloniale) now makes a highly effective anti-Fascist satire, one that visibly reflects the prevailing concerns in France at the time of the ever-growing threat posed by Fascism, both within and beyond its borders.

In the rule-obsessed mayor Lebrennois (played to comic perfection by the immensely talented character actor Saturnin Fabre) we see an unflattering caricature of Hitler and Mussolini - a pathetic, self-important tyrant who believes that order and discipline are the way to happiness and prosperity.  By contrast, Gargousse, the comical but amiable station master who cherishes freedom above everything else, represents the spirit of France - and the song he sings to a like-minded ensemble says as much - "J'suis un homme libre et je fais ce qui me plaît, Tous ce que j'demande, qu'on me fiche la paix..."  ("I am a free man and I do what I please, All I ask is to be left in peace.")

Wulschleger's film may have been intended as an inoffensive little comedy but it proved to be eerily prophetic.  Within two years of its release, France would be living the fictional war of Trépigny for real, the country divided between those who supported a Lebrennois-like 'order is good for you' dictator (namely Marshal Pétain) and those who, like Gargousse, valued freedom too much to give it up without a fight.

Film Synopsis

Trépigny is one of the more tranquil towns in France, and it would no doubt have stayed that way if the newly elected mayor, Lebrennois, hadn't set his sights on modernising it in the hope of attracting more tourists to the area.  In the stationmaster Gargousse he finds he has the fiercest of opponents.  A popular free spirit who occasionally indulges in a spot of poaching, Gargousse sees nothing good in the mayor's grandiose plans for the town and is determined to prevent them from coming to fruition. Lebrennois has further reason to resent the troublesome stationmaster when his nephew Alain begins showing a romantic interest in his enemy's goddaughter Antoinette.  

To the mayor's blinkered way of thinking, the railway line is an absurdly out-dated mode of transportation and should be replaced by a far more efficient and cost effective coach service.  This is one development that the stick-in-the-mud Gargousse hadn't expected.  Now that his job is on the line (or rather off the line, if he loses it), the stationmaster decides the time has come for decisive action.  So infuriated is he with the egregious mayor that he offers him a duel that will allow him to totally discredit his latest madcap idea.  The gloves are finally off!  Now the town of Trépigny is to witness the most fiercely fought contest in its entire history...