L'Homme orchestre (1970)
Directed by Serge Korber

Film Review

Iconic comic actor Louis de Funès stars in this spirited but flawed attempt to make a French musical comedy in the American style.  The great comedian appears alongside his son, Olivier, and a host of beautiful dancers, but their combined talents are wasted thanks to some uninspired direction and a script that is unimaginably weak.  The film has a few rare pleasing moments (the Tati-esque car sequence at the start of the film and Louis de Funès' musical number near the end), but the unimaginative plot, with its repetitive, dull dance routines, effectively diminishes the film's charm.

Film Synopsis

The world famous choreographer Evan Evans and his famous ballet company are in Monaco completing their rehearsals ahead of an important European tour.  All goes well until one of the dancers leaves the company without any notice so that she can get married.  Even though Evans quickly manages to find a replacement he is determined to prevent any similar mishap from occurring, so he immediately imposes a regime of enforced chastity on his troupe.  This requires him to look in on his dancers' bedrooms every evening, just to make sure there is no hanky-panky going on.

Evans' fears prove to be justified when he catches one of his dancers, Françoise Martin, having an amorous fumble with her boyfriend, Franco.   Françoise escapes her employer's wrath by fleeing to her lover's yacht, where she is promptly offered a proposal of marriage.  Franco gives his lover just two days to make up her mind - long enough for Evans to scupper Françoise's bid for freedom.  The choreographer's plan is to convince Franco that Françoise is already amorously attached - to his nephew Philippe, the only male member of his troupe.

Not one to go against his domineering uncle, Philippe goes along with the dastardly scheme and is soon deluging Françoise with ardent professions of love.  The ruse works and a suitably disenchanted Franco sails off into the sunset, leaving his bewildered girlfriend behind.  When the troupe moves to Rome, Evans has further problems on his hands when Françoise presents him with a baby, claiming that the father is Philippe.  In fact the baby belongs to another dancer who has just reclaimed it from a nurse.  Since, the previous year, Philippe did indeed have a love affair with a woman, he cannot deny that the baby is his...