Film: Le Grande Vadrouille
Release date: 15th February 2010
Certificate: PG
Running time: 118 mins
Director: Gérard Oury
Starring: Andre Bourvil, Louis de Funes, Terry Thomas
Genre: Comedy/War
Studio: Optimum
Format: DVD
Country: France
What a very, very strange phenomenon this is. Up until the release of Titanic, this was the biggest box-office hit ever in France – millions of French citizens parted with their hard-earned cash to watch Terry Thomas careering around France doing battle with cross-eyed Germans. The only comparison would be the British TV audience of the 1980s were happy to sit down and watch Allo Allo every Sunday night in their millions – a show now so dated it’s generally regarded as an embarrassment. The fact that it was also known as Don’t Look Now, We’re Being Shot At gives you some idea of the tone of the film.
La Grande Vadrouille does at least offer rather more sophisticated entertainment, and some sense that Nazis were threatening, not the cartoon buffoons of Allo Allo. It’s actually a well-paced romp, although there is still an uneasy feeling that World War II is not really a suitable subject matter for a comedy.
Terry-Thomas is the captain of a Lancaster bomber flying home after a mission. The plane is hit and the crew decide to bail out. “Where are we,” asks Thomas, “Calais,” replies his sidekick, before the clouds part to reveal the Eiffel Tower – the first of many Carry On-style jokes.
The crew bail out , land all over the fair city and have a few close scrapes with Nazis before meeting up to complete their mission. One, Peter Cunningham (Claudio Brook), is saved by a stunning lady puppeteer (Marie Dubois). They enlist the help of two slightly potty Frenchmen, a painter (Bourvil) and a dotty conductor (Louis de Funes).
Once they have all met up they disguise themselves as Nazis, visit the opera house to claim back a missing member, and then escape through the underground sewers of Paris. The plot then drives them to Burgundy, where they have a mistaken room number adventure before escaping back to Blighty in gliders. Bourvil and de Funes keep bumping into each other in a very Lauren and Hardy-type physical comedy style…
Watching this in 2010 is an odd, if not an unpleasurable experience. There are some truly cheesy jokes – the old one with a white line road painter veering off to the side and the traffic following him gets a dusting down, as does the even older joke of the inhabitants of hotel room number 9 going into the wrong room when the door number plops upside down. Sometimes, though, the tone does get serious, as when the plane goes down, and later when a truck carrying the Brits is attacked by motorbike-riding Germans. Yet for all of its flaws, it’s strangely charming – and it even gets away with the old trick of a German speaking in English and the Brit answering him – the “Good Luck – Oh, Thank You” routine.
Terry Thomas does his usual silly-ass Englishman routine, and reveals a truly awful French accent, but does drive the whole story forward. His explaining why he has shaved off his moustache is a collector’s item moment. All of the Brits are handsome and upright, all of the Nazis are squat, fat Germans, and the French ladies are gorgeous.
It’s difficult to know where to put this in the history of cinema, but one thing is for sure, it deserves its proper DVD release. It was massive in France, a huge hit in Australia – with no publicity at all – and after its release was never released on video and never seen on TV. It certainly needed a proper release, and this is it – the transfer is lovingly done, the colours are bright, the picture is strong and the subtitles are correct and clear. A sequence in the famous Beaune Hospital reveals the gorgeous depth of colour and the crisp editing, and the sound is good, too.
There are no extras, apart from a four-minute trailer, presumably because there is little material from the period that could be added.
A genuine oddity, but if you’re in the mood, it’s worth a look, and certainly a better option than the Allo Allo box set.
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