La Grosse caisse (1965)
Directed by Alex Joffé

Film Review

With La Grosse caisse director Alex Joffé was blessed with the opportunity to combine the two genres that appealed to him the most - the gangster film and traditional comedy - and, assisted by his favourite actor, Bourvil, he delivered a film that is enjoyably daft, albeit somewhat lacking in originality.  Immediately before this, Bourvil had starred in another comedy-thriller, Le Corniaud (1965), and Joffé's more modest film suffers by comparison with this Gérard Oury big budget extravaganza.  La Grosse caisse does, however, have one shining ace up its sleeve - a wonderfully entertaining Paul Meurisse, here earning his claim to the title of the most elegant gangster boss of any French film.

In the 1960s, Bourvil and Joffé made several successful films together, including the wartime drama Fortunat (1960) and the effervescent comedy Le Tracassin (1961).  As ever, Bourvil is cast as the sympathetic loser, this time a lowly ticket puncher on the Paris metro with absurd literary pretensions.  The best scripted gag is the pseudonym Bourvil adopts for his crime novel (the brilliantly titled Rapt à la RATP) - after eyeballing a shelf stacked with popular série noire novels he comes up with the name Louis Le Norman.  The plot then stalls for several reels until Meurisse shows up, oozing implausibly copious quantities of charm and sinister menace, and it is at this (belated) point that the film suddenly comes to life, culminating in a well-executed heist that would not disgrace a serious film policier of this era.  Top marks go to the set designers, who built an almost perfect replica of the Quai de la Rapée in the studio.  La Grosse caisse is by no means the best comedy gangster film of its time, but, whilst the gags are in short supply, the feisty face-off between two of French cinema's acting legends - Bourvil and Meurisse - is irresistible.

Film Synopsis

Louis Bourdin, a modest ticket puncher on the Paris metro, is so enamoured of crime fiction that he decides to write his own novel, expecting that one day he will be as famous as Auguste Le Breton.  After months of painstaking research, he pens a work of fiction that describes in meticulous detail a train robbery on his stretch of the metro.  Unfortunately, Louis has no success getting the book published, as no one seems to believe the robbery is possible.  To prove them wrong, Louis decides to enact the robbery himself, with the help of some professional crooks.  As luck would have it, Paul Filippi, the aristocrat of crime, has just been released from prison and is preparing his next criminal exploit.  To his mind, Louis has conceived the perfect robbery...