Film Review
By the mid 1930s, Fernandel was firmly established as the most popular comic
performer in France. Cinema audiences just couldn't get enough of him.
Averaging four of five films a year over the next two decades, the distinctive
horse-faced comedian became as big a screen magnet in France as Chaplin had
been in his day, and his versatility as an actor became apparent through
the wide variety of films he lent his talents to. Fernandel's high
point as a pure comic performer was between 1935 and 1940, during which time
French film comedy was on a roll, untainted by the cynicism that came with
the dark years of the 1940s and the corrupting influence of American-style
comedy.
Fernandel's better comedies of the 1930s are those that combine the anarchy
of an early Marx Brothers film and the madness of a Feydeau farce with the
rigorous plotting of a Preston Sturges comedy.
Jim la Houlette
is a prime example of this, one of the comic actor's most successful and
most enjoyable comedies of this decade. The film derives from a popular
play by Jean Guitton, which had previously been made into a film entitled
Jim la Houlette, roi des voleurs in 1926, with Nicolas Rimsky multi-tasking
as director, screenwriter and lead actor. Guitton's work has frequently
been adapted for cinema - other adaptations of his plays that Fernandel fans
will no doubt be familiar with include
Les Rois du sport (1937)
and
L'Acrobate (1941).
Interestingly - given how successful the film proved to be with critics and
audiences -
Jim la Houlette was the only time that Fernandel worked
with André Berthomieu, an incredibly prolific film director.
With almost seventy screen credits to his name, Berthomieu could hardly be
expected to be a consistently good filmmaker, but whilst the bulk of his
work languishes in obscurity there are some films that have stood the test
of time remarkably well and bear witness to the diversity of his oeuvre -
Le Mort en fuite (1936)
with Jules Berry and Michel Simon,
L'Ange de la nuit (1944)
with Jean-Louis Barrault and
En
légitime défense (1958) with Bernard Blier. Boasting
a script that never runs short of ideas or momentum, and with Fernandel firing
on all cylinders,
Jim la Houlette rates as one of Berthomieu's most
satisfying comedies.
Another thing that marks this out as a superior Fernandel comedy is a strong
supporting cast that includes a stunning Mireille Perrey (a perfect choice
for the woman over whom the lead actor very nearly loses his head - literally)
and that great dame of vaudeville, Marguerite Moreno, a joy to watch in the
role that befitted her best: the imperious marquise equipped with a stare
that can turn men to stone. Louis Florencie gets to be the bourgeois
bogeyman (with the political left in the ascendant it's hardly surprising
that the film should have such an obvious anti-bourgeois, anti-capitalist
slant) whilst Jacques Varennes has his work cut out playing the shadowy hoodlum
(in the Fantômas mould) who moonshines as a respected, albeit lethally
prolix, lawyer. Despite being a busy actor for most of his career it
was only in his later years that Varennes' talents were fully recognised,
most notably by Sacha Guitry, who put him to good use in several of his films,
including
Le Diable boiteux
(1948) and
La Poison (1951).
Jim la Houlette has the perfect cast for a supremely well-oiled Fernandel
vehicle. Not only is the comedy giant tirelessly funny, he also gives
us a foretaste of his most famous screen creation, a Catholic priest who
has a knack of getting himself into trouble, almost twenty years before he
made his proper debut in Duvivier's
Le Petit monde de
Don Camillo (1952). If you were minded to trump the film up
you could attach to it the label of a cany satire, one that takes pleasure
in mocking the French legal system, the publishing world, even the insatiable
appetite of the
hoi polloi for cheap sensationalist thrills.
But that's hardly necessary.
Jim la Houlette is an enjoyable,
unpretentious little comedy that allows Fernandel to do what he does best,
aided and abetted by a great comedy ensemble. And if that's not enough,
the comedy icon gets to sing one of his best songs,
Dites-lui mon amour
- a show-stopper if ever there was one.
© James Travers 2016
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Film Synopsis
Jacques Moluchet is the author of several best selling romantic novels, but
unfortunately he receives no credit for this as his work is published under
the name of his unscrupulous employer Philippe Bretonneau, who makes himself
rich at his expense. Jacques derives his inspiration from his intense
amorous feelings for Pauline, his employer's young and beautiful wife.
It seems that literary tastes are changing and what the public now wants
are lurid thrills, not romance - a trend that is helped by the fact that
the newspapers are constantly filled with the latest exploits of the criminal
mastermind Jim la Houlette. Bretonneau accepts a proposition from his
publisher to capitalise on the crook's notoriety by staging a hold-up in
his château during a soirée hosted by his mother-in-law.
Reluctantly, Jacques agrees to play the part of Jim la Houlette, and nothing
seems easier than for him to fire a pistol at the appropriate moment and
run off with the precious manuscript of his latest novel.
Unfortunately, the real Jim la Houlette chooses this particular night to
raid Bretonneau's château. In the confusion, Jacques is arrested
and ends up in court, to be tried for Jim's numerous criminal exploits.
The trial turns in Jacques' favour when a dossier is presented to the court
which casts doubt on his culpability. His defence lawyer Maître
Clisson demands nothing less than a full acquittal. A 'not guilty'
verdict seems certain, until Pauline takes the witness stand and professes
her admiration for the accused man. It seems that she completely idolises
Jim la Houlette and could not be happier to learn that he was living under
her roof. Unable to dispel his admirer's romantic illusions about
him, Jacques has no option but to admit to being the famous criminal.
He might have been less chivalrous if he he had known that he was going to be given
the death penalty...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.