La Tête du client (1965)
Directed by Jacques Poitrenaud

Film Review

What was originally conceived as a straight adaptation of Michel Lebrun's grim thriller La Grosse tête somehow ended up as this frivolous farce, which is let down by some puerile attempts at humour and a distinct lack of plot.  Jacques Poitrenaud belongs to the Jean Girault school of filmmaking, and were it not for the illustrious comedy performers that graced his films his name would have been long forgotten.  La Tête du client offers not only one of French cinema's best comedy double acts - in the form of Michel Serrault and Jean Poiret - it also puts the comedic talents of Francis Blanche, Jean Richard and Darry Cowl to good use.  You have to wait right to the end of the film to enjoy its best gag but there's plenty of lowbrow amusement to be had along the way.  Definitely not a classic, but the film does at least help to while away a dull minute or two.   Here Michel Serrault gives some meaning to the phrase 'mad as a hatter', just as he would do seventeen years later in Claude Chabrol's Les Fantômes du chapelier (1982).

Film Synopsis

To go by his outward appearance, Gaston Berrien would seem to be the very epitome of bourgeois respectability.  A hat maker, he runs his own business in Vaucresson and is happily married to Françoise, an outgoing woman who is mostly preoccupied with the crime novels she writes.  This model couple have two model children, Freddy and Evelyne, both 17.  But, alas, the hat trade is no longer as lucrative as it once was, and so Gaston must supplement his income by other means.  He has entered into partnership with his brother-in-law, Philippe, running an illegal  gambling den in Sucy-en-Brie.  It is a lucrative line of business and Gaston has nothing to complain about - until his daughter makes the mistake of falling in love with one of his gambling clients.  Things take an even more serious turn when a mysterious stranger turns up and threatens to expose Gaston's highly illicit operation...