Les Bleus de la marine (1934)
Directed by Maurice Cammage

Film Review

This lowbrow farce appears shamelessly unsophisticated even for the standards of the 1930s, but a spirited performance from a very young Fernandel gives it a sense of fun and more than a few good laughs.   The direction is clumsy and the comic situations painfully laboured, but some cheerful musical numbers help to make the film palatable.  Without Fernandel, the film would probably have disappeared without trace.  Colette Darfeuil, a popular young starlet of the era, has a significant supporting role in the film.  She appears opposite another promising young actor, Andrex, who would go on to appear in many of Fernandel's subsequent popular comedies, without ever attaining stardom himself.

Film Synopsis

With their ship docked in the port of Toulon, Lafraise and Plumard manage to lose their bearings as their fellow sailors go on parade through the town.  Their only hope of avoiding a severe reprimand is to get back to their ship without anyone noticing, and to help make this possible they adopt disguises.  The plan might have worked if the two errant seamen didn't have the misfortune of being mistaken for an important dignitary and his secretary.  In his new capacity, Lafraise finds that he has to not only inaugurate a new monument, he must also give a speech.  After a chaotic dinner party navy justice catches up with Lafraise and Plumard and it isn't long before they are paying the price for their misdemeanours, incarcerated in their ship's hold...