Les Gorilles (1964)
Directed by Jean Girault

Film Review

Director Jean Girault put his name to many classic French comedies, the most successful of these being the ones that featured the comedy legend Louis de Funès - notably the multiple offerings in the Gendarme series.  Les Gorilles comes near the start of Girault's filmmaking career (released in 1964, the same year as Le Gendarme de Saint-Tropez) and is a typical run-around comedy of this era, pairing two other celebrated stalwarts of French film comedy - Darry Cowl and Francis Blanche.  Had a little more thought gone into the script, Les Gorilles might have stood the test of time a little better.  As it is, jam-packed with poor gags and comedy sketches that mostly fall flat, the film struggles to keep going and would be pretty tiresome were it not for the valiant attempts by its indefatigable lead performers to keep the thing going.

To put it mildly, Darry Cowl is something of an acquired taste.  His persona and brand of comedy are certainly pretty unique, but not in the sense that is likely to make you laugh out loud.  In his day, Cowl was one of the most popular French comic actors, although by the 1970s he was massively eclipsed by far more substantial talents, including Louis de Funès and Bourvil.  In the right context, with a good script behind him, he can be amusing, if not out-right hilarious.  In Les Gorilles, where everything appears to be against him, he just appears ridiculous and sometimes unbearably tiresome.

Francis Blanche, a far more intelligent and capable comedy performer, makes a more convincing go of things and in some scenes he is irresistibly funny, although for the most part even he struggles to extract more than a grudging smile from his audience.  Overall, Les Gorilles is a massive let down, a foretaste of the misfires that would blight Girault's later career.  There's some fun to be had when a familiar face shows up from time to time,  Michel Galabru, Michel Constantin, Jean Carmet and Robert Dalban are welcome additions to a surprisingly showy cast-list, but their combined contributions cannot make up for the sheer idiocy of the plot and the dearth of decent gags.  A dreary, stumbling and mostly humourless comedy, Les Gorilles outstays its welcome by the midpoint and thereafter becomes a laborious crawl to a far from amusing conclusion.

Film Synopsis

Édouard and Félix have been friends for many years.  Once gainfully employed as bodyguards, they have since come down in the world somewhat and now earn their crust as lowly baggage handlers at Orly Airport.  It's hardly the most demanding of jobs but it does have one perk - it allows our friends ample opportunity for flirting with air hostesses.  One day, a suitcase goes missing and its owner, a seemingly respectable diamond merchant, is understandably furious.  To rectify a potentially calamitous situation, Édouard and Félix do their utmost to try to recover the missing suitcase, convinced that it is filled with a fortune in precious jewels,  Realising that the case must have been mistakenly picked up by another passenger, the two men set out on a manic chase across the capital and on the way they allow themselves to get caught up in the most improbable of situations.  It is a quest that takes them all over Paris and ends not quite as they had imagined...