Ces dames préfèrent le mambo (1957)
Directed by Bernard Borderie

Film Review

Eddie Constantine stars in this somewhat lacklustre pastiche of film noir and American-style action/adventure, a formula that was hugely popular in France in the 1950s.  Having played the redoubtable FBI agent Lemmy Caution in a dozen or so similar films, Eddie Constantine became one of the biggest stars in French cinema, much loved on account of his smooth American charm with accent to match.  These films are very much a product of their time, intended to serve an intense craving for all things American, and consequently now appear very dated and rather shallow.

Watching Ces dames préfèrent le mambo you'd be mistaken for thinking you had tuned into an episode of the “Eddie Constantine show” - so strong is the lead actor's presence in the film that everything else (including the magnificent Lino Ventura) appears superfluous.  Like most of the films in this series, it is best appreciated as a well-intended parody of the B-movie genre, indeed a parody of itself.  The most enjoyable part of this film is its last few scenes, culminating with a wonderfully camp send-up of the Lemmy Caution series.  Pigez?

Film Synopsis

Seafarer Burt Brickford winds up in a South American port where he attracts the attention of a stranger, Pérez, who offers to give him a passport in return for captaining a yacht on a pleasure trip to the Caribbean.  At odds with the American authorities, Burt is badly in need of a new passport and so he gladly accepts the offer.  The yacht in question belongs to the millionaire Henery Legrand and his passengers are a suspicious-looking bunch that include three young women, Constance, Marina and Claire, the latter of whom is mixed up with some gangsters.  When he discovers explosives on board the yacht Burt is told that his passengers intend recovering the lost treasure aboard a sunken galleon.  In fact this is just another smoke screen to conceal the real purpose for the expedition...