Poisson d'avril (1954)
Directed by Gilles Grangier

Film Review

This charming light comedy proves to be a surprisingly astute satire of the French middleclasses, somewhat less scathing than later assaults on the bourgeoisie by Luis Buñuel and Claude Chabrol, but nonetheless pretty damning of the class who think they are a cut above the rest.  The film is directed by Gilles Grangier, who had several noteworthy successes in the comedy line, including Le Plus joli péché du monde (1951) and La Cuisine au beurre (1963), and was also pretty adept in the classic thriller genre, evidenced by Gas-oil (1955) and Le Désordre et la Nuit (1958).

In Poison d'avril, Grangier had the privilege of directing two of France's best-loved comic actors, Bourvil and Louis de Funès, in their first film together (although the latter actor appears in just one scene).  Certainly, the humorous confrontation between these two comic giants is one of the high points of the film and anticipates further memorable clashes in later films, including their box office busting extravaganzas Le Corniaud (1965) and La Grande vadrouille (1966).

Humorously scripted by Michel Audiard, another legend of French cinema (he authored such classic comedies as Les Tontons flingueurs), the film is carried by a plot which gets deliriously funny as the tower of lies grows ever higher, allowing Bourvil to show his mettle in the kind of comedy role in which he excelled - the hapless innocent whose only weapon against the cruel blows of fate is tireless good humour and a blithe willingness to accept things as they come.  As he did in many of his early films. Bourvil gets to show off his vocal talents with a song, on this occasion Aragon et Castille. Lacking the schmaltzy sentimentality that blights many of Bourvil's early films, Poison d'avril is a good-natured comedy that plays to the comic actor's strengths.

Film Synopsis

Emile Dupuis, a garage mechanic, has been setting aside some money each month to buy his wife Charlotte a washing machine.  The temptation to use this money to buy himself a new fishing rod is more than Emile can resist, but to prevent his wife from finding this out he has no choice but to go fishing without her knowledge.  Pretending to attend to car break-downs in the country, Emile goes fishing with his new toy each weekend, accompanied by his son.  As luck would have it, his favourite cousin Annette is having an affair with a rich businessman, Gaston Prévost.  Annette's suggestion that Emile should go fishing on her lover's ample country estate is immediately taken on board and the mechanic is soon happily indulging in his favourite pastime in the most idyllic of settings.

All is well until an all too diligent country policeman shows up and reports this apparent act of brazen trespassing to Prévost's wife.   To prevent his wife from finding out about his affair with Annette, Prévost is forced to invent a convincing story to account for Emile's presence on his land.  He reveals that Emile was the man who saved his life during the last war.  Impressed by this revelation, Madame Prévost feels obliged to invite Emile to dinner.  And who better to play the part of Emile's wife than Annette?  This memorable day comes back to haunt Emile not long afterwards, when Madame Prévost runs into Charlotte, his real wife, and lets slip that he is seeing another woman...