Film Review
With
La Grosse caisse
director Alex Joffé was blessed with the opportunity to combine
the two genres that appealed to him the most - the gangster film and
traditional comedy - and, assisted by his favourite actor, Bourvil, he
delivered a film that is enjoyably daft, albeit somewhat lacking in
originality. Immediately before this, Bourvil had starred in
another comedy-thriller,
Le Corniaud (1965), and
Joffé's more modest film suffers by comparison with this
Gérard Oury big budget extravaganza.
La Grosse caisse does, however,
have one shining ace up its sleeve - a wonderfully entertaining Paul
Meurisse, here earning his claim to the title of the most elegant
gangster boss of any French film.
In the 1960s, Bourvil and Joffé made several successful films
together, including the wartime drama
Fortunat (1960) and the
effervescent comedy
Le Tracassin (1961). As
ever, Bourvil is cast as the sympathetic loser, this time a lowly
ticket puncher on the Paris metro with absurd literary
pretensions. The best scripted gag is the pseudonym Bourvil
adopts for his crime novel (the brilliantly titled
Rapt à la RATP) - after
eyeballing a shelf stacked with popular
série noire novels he comes
up with the name Louis Le Norman. The plot then stalls for
several reels until Meurisse shows up, oozing implausibly copious
quantities of charm and sinister menace, and it is at this (belated)
point that the film suddenly comes to life, culminating in a
well-executed heist that would not disgrace a serious film policier of
this era. Top marks go to the set designers, who built an almost
perfect replica of the Quai de la Rapée in the studio.
La Grosse caisse is by no means the
best comedy gangster film of its time, but, whilst the gags are in
short supply, the feisty face-off between two of French cinema's acting
legends - Bourvil and Meurisse - is irresistible.
© James Travers 2014
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Film Synopsis
Louis Bourdin, a modest ticket puncher on the Paris metro, is so
enamoured of crime fiction that he decides to write his own novel,
expecting that one day he will be as famous as Auguste Le Breton.
After months of painstaking research, he pens a work of fiction that
describes in meticulous detail a train robbery on his stretch of the
metro. Unfortunately, Louis has no success getting the book
published, as no one seems to believe the robbery is possible. To
prove them wrong, Louis decides to enact the robbery himself, with the
help of some professional crooks. As luck would have it, Paul
Filippi, the aristocrat of crime, has just been released from prison
and is preparing his next criminal exploit. To his mind, Louis
has conceived the perfect robbery...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.