Botta e risposta (1950)
Directed by Mario Soldati

Film Review

Better known for his plush literary adaptations - Le Miserie del signor Travet (1945), Eugénie Grandet (1947) - Italian director Mario Soldati also devoted a fair chunk of his career to lively comedies, although his later offerings in the genre were not a patch on his early films.  Botta e riposta, also known by its French title Je suis de la revue, is the kind of film that now looks crass but which was phenomenally successful in the late 1940s and early 1950s, a compendium of musical hall acts loosely linked together by the most tenuous of storylines.  Other (better) examples of this genre include Maurice de Canonge's Boum sur Paris (1954) and Maurice Labro's La Route du bonheur (1953).

Louis Armstrong's showstopping jazz number is the highlight of an otherwise undistinguished film, despite the scintillating presence of Suzy Delair and some spirited input from comedy legend Fernandel.  The asinine plot has the lovely Delair rushing from one musical venue to another as she attempts to recover a stolen garment.  It's silly and, for the most part, the humour is distinctly lacking, but the wall-to-wall musical numbers make it an enjoyable nostalgia piece.  In the French version of the film, the actor Nino Taranto (playing a delivery man) is dubbed by Louis de Funès with a bizarre Italian accent - needless to say, it is the funniest thimg the film has to offer.

Film Synopsis

Suzy, a well-known singer, is on her way to Rome to attend an audience with the Pope.  During the train journey from Paris, her costume and jewels are stolen.  Accompanied by a scatterbrained young man named Fernand, Suzy sets out to recover her possessions, but ends up attending several shows in the Italian capital.