La Fugue de Monsieur Perle (1952)
Directed by Pierre Gaspard-Huit, Roger Richebé

Film Review

Comic giant Noël-Noël is on fine form in this enjoyably daft comedy, one that is a blatant rip-off of an earlier Fernandel vehicle (Jean Boyer's L'Acrobate) but who cares?   Sharing directing duties with Roger Richebé is Pierre Gaspard-Huit, the first feature he worked on and one that is a far cry from the films for which he is now best remembered - the period romance Christine (1958) and swashbuckler Le Capitaine Fracasse (1961).  Another comedy genius (who would take over from Noël-Noël in the following decade), Louis de Funès, shows up in two scenes, playing a madman engaged in fishing in a bath (how do you know there are no fish in a bath unless you fish for them?) but for the most part this is Noël-Noël's show, and he is tirelessly entertaining throughout.

The borrowed storyline is well disguised by a bountiful supply of gags, which the iconic comedian fields with almost accidental ease.  The highlight is the sequence in which the main protagonist imagines how he is to break the news of how he has squandered his inheritance to his far from forgiving wife.  You'd think he had committed mass murder.  La Fugue de Monsieur Perle is sedate compared with Noël-Noël's boisterous comedies of the 1930s - Adémaï au moyen âge (1934), La Famille Duraton (1939), Tout va très bien madame la marquise (1936) - but the anarchic spark is still there and the comic actor shows no sign of losing his flair for making his audience roar with laughter as he stumbles from one comedy situation to another.  With many more box office hits to come - notably À pied, à cheval et en voiture (1957) - Noël-Noël was still one of the most bankable stars in French cinema - and the funniest by some margin.  Only after he had retired from cinema (in 1966) could Louis de Funès step in and take his place as France's best loved comic actor.

Film Synopsis

Bernard Perle and his wife Juliette run a bakery in a small provincial town.  One day, Monsieur Perle receives a letter notifying him that his aunt has died and left him a legacy.  Thinking he has inherited a huge fortune, the baker heads for Paris, only to be told by his aunt's solicitor that after the debts have been paid there is only a modest inheritance.  To console himself whilst the formalities are cleared up, Monsieur Perle goes on a sightseeing trip around Paris.  At the restaurant at the top of the Eiffel Tower he meets an attractive young woman, Maud, and just manages to prevent her from committing suicide.  Taking pity on the distressed woman, Monsieur Perle treats her to some new clothes and accompanies her to Deauville, where he discovers the joys of gambling.  Within no time, Perle has squandered most of his inheritance, and Maud absconds with the amount that is left.  Fearful of how his wife will react when she discovers how he has lost his money, Monsieur Perle decides to feign amnesia.  To avoid being sent to a madhouse, he pretends to recognise a stranger who identifies him as his nephew.  This is the point at which Monsieur Perle's troubles really begin...