La Septième compagnie au clair de lune (1977)
Directed by Robert Lamoureux

Film Review

The third and mercifully final entry in Robert Lamoureux's Septième compagnie trilogy fails to revive the winning formula of the previous two instalments and mostly falls flat for want of a decent narrative and comic content amounting to more than a few spluttering gags.  La Septième compagnie au clair de lune was Lamoureux's swansong as a director - he had first taken up the directorial baton in 1960 with Ravissante, having found fame as an actor, most notably in Jean-Paul Le Chanois's stupendously popular comedy Papa, Maman, la Bonne et moi (1954).

Mais où est donc passée la septième compagnie (1973) and On a retrouvé la septième compagnie (1975) both benefited from a resurgence in popularity of the military comedy genre in France in the early 1970s, following hot on the heels of the success of the Charlots' Les Bidasses en folie (1971).  Both films attracted just under four million spectators.  The third entry in the series barely notched up an audience of 0.8 million and was considered a flop, not surprisingly as it ditched most of the ingredients that made the first two films so appealing - including the ensemble cast and hilariously botched wartime manoeuvres.

As for the earlier films, Lamoureux shared the screenwriting duties with Jean-Marie Poiré, who embarked on his own directing career around this time, debuting with an engaging little comedy entitled Les Petits câlins.  After this, Poiré went on to achieve massive box office success in the 1980s and '90s, helming some of the all-time classics of mainstream French comedy - including Papy fait de la résistance (1983) - a far better wartime comedy than any of the 7th Company films - and Les Visiteurs (1993).

Even with such an impressive cast line-up as Pierre Mondy, Jean Lefebvre, Jean Carmet and Gérard Jugjnot, Poiré and Lamoureux struggle to come up with more than a handful of tired gags and ludicrously strained comic situations.  The result looks like a series of bad episodes of 'Allo, 'Allo lazily strung together without any real enthusiasm.  There are a few tantalising moments when it looks as if inspiration is about to strike (most memorable is a quayside silent comedy sequence), but these are soon cruelly extinguished by feeble gushes of limp humour and general inept silliness.

Film Synopsis

With France now under German occupation, the members of the ill-fated 7th Company make a belated return to civilian life and it would appear that their wartime escapades are finally at an end.  Ex-Sergeant Major Chaudard once again takes up the reins of his ironmongers store, assisted by his wife Suzanne, whilst trying to stay on good terms with the local police chief, Lambert.  Chaudard invites his two former comrades in the 7th company Tassin and Pithivier to stay with him for a few days, not knowing that his wife and her brother, Gorgeton, are sheltering a leading member of the French Resistance in his storeroom.  If Lambert gets to hear of this he is likely to be arrested and executed!  Whilst out hunting rabbits one evening, Chaudard and his two former subordinates manage to get themselves caught up in a resistance operation.  To avoid being shot by German patrols, the three men make a hasty break for the Breton coast...