Film Review
With
Le Chanteur de Mexico
proving to be one of the biggest hits at the French box office in 1956, it
was hardly surprising that its two popular stars - the singer Luis Mariano
and comic actor Bourvil - would be brought together for an even grander rematch.
Once again, Richard Pottier rose to the challege of directing another big
budget musical extravaganza (something he became quite adept at in the latter
half of his career), whilst composer Francis Lopez provided the show-stopping
musical numbers, which included '
Pour l'amour d'une belle', '
A
dada', '
Les pruneaux' and the eminently hummable title number
'
Sérénade au Texas'.
On this occasion, the result is somewhat less successful than Pottier's previous
musical offerings. The limp western storyline of
Sérénade
au Texas seems to have been somewhat overlooked, consisting of little
more than a lazily strung together series of clichéd ideas stolen
from other films, a barely adequate narrative framework on to which the musical
numbers can be thrown without a great deal of thought or logic.
For fans of the hyper-charismatic duo Mariano and Bourvil, this obvious dearth
of original plot probably matters not a jot, particularly as both performers
give such value doing what they obviously enjoy doing most, wowing audiences
with their vocal dexterity. It's worth remembering that whilst we tend
to think of Bourvil as being exclusively an actor, he was, at the time, enormously
successful as a singer and recordings of his songs probably reached far more
people in France than his films.
Pottier's capabilities as a director were evidently on the decline by this
late stage in his prolific filmmaking career. After this somewhat lacklustre
musical, he made only three subsequent films, all instantly forgettable.
Even those films which the director had made when he was at his most inspired
in the 1940s -
Huit hommes
dans un château (1942),
Picpus
(1942),
Les Caves du Majestic
(1944) - are all but forgotten today, and it is hardly to his credit that
he is now best known for his shamelessly kitsch collaborations with Luis
Mariano, the most successful being the much-loved classic
Violettes impériales
(1952).
© James Travers 2011
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Next Richard Pottier film:
Si j'étais le patron (1934)
Film Synopsis
Jacques Gardel, a modest record seller, can hardly believe his good fortune
when a notary, Jérôme Quilleboeuf, excitedly tells him that
he has inherited an enormous oil field at a place called Big Bend in Texas.
Eager to take possession of his newfound wealth, Jacques hastily departs
for Texas, accompanied by the well-meaning Quilleboeuf. On the way,
the two men meet up with a friendly company of strolling players, Roderick
and his two daughters Rose and Sylvia. On arriving in Big Bend, Jacques
and Jérôme find themselves pitted against a ruthless band of
gun-toting outlaws led by the town's unscrupulous banker, Abner Dawson.
Fortunately, our heroes can count on the support of Roderick and his daughters
to help them in their efforts to purge the town of its thuggish criminals...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.