La Belle Américaine
1961 Comedy
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Starring: Alfred Adam, Colette Brosset, Robert Burnier, Pierre Dac, Eliane D'Almeida |
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Summary
The life of an ordinary factory worker Marcel is completely transformed when he manages
to acquire an expensive new American car, a Cadillac convertible, for the price of a second-hand
motorcycle. His apparent initial stroke of good fortune is swiftly followed by a
run of bad luck, as he loses his job and then endures the revenge of the car’s previous
owner. Fortunately, his friends are on hand to help him out, seduced by the glamour
of his American car…
Critique
This light comedy owes as much to the American slapstick comedy of Buster Keaten and Charlie
Chaplin as to French burlesque comic farce. It is essentially no more than one long
series of comic capers centred around an expensive American car which brings misfortune
on its new owner. Whilst some of the comedy works quite well, the film is repetitive
and rambling without making any series attempt to develop character or develop a coherent
narrative. The film is intended only to entertain and it manages to achieve that
to a certain extent, although some of the jokes now look rather like bad clichés.
The film was directed by Robert Dhéry
who is probably best known as the director of the comic theatre troupe, Les Branquignols,
seen in the 1954 French film, Ah!
Les belles bacchantes. Dhéry stars in the film along side a number of his
colleagues from Les Branquignols, including Colette Brosset. The film also features
some brilliant and all too brief appearances by Louis de Funès, some years before
he acquired the status as the most popular comic actor in France.
© James Travers 2002
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