Raphaël le tatoué (1939)
Directed by Christian-Jaque

Film Review

Raphaël le tatoué made 1930s cinemagoers an offer they could hardly refuse: two Fernandels for the price of one - well almost.  In a cunning variation on the theme of doubles (a popular device in French comedies of this era), Fernandel plays a character (his usual gump persona) who pretends to have an identical twin brother (a lowgrade hoodlum), a neat idea which avoids the time and expense of having to use double exposure.  Instead, we get one of the best visual gags of any Fernandel film - the horse-faced comedian working overtime to convince us he is being beaten up by his imaginary twin brother.  As daft comedy conceits go, it's a good one, and the one criticism that can be levelled at the film is that it doesn't make as much use of it as it should.  Still. it's better than Richard Pottier's Destins (1946), which has Tino Rossi trying to pull off the more conventional twin brother act, with less success.  Fernandel would later get to play a bona fide double role in Jean Bastia's Dynamite Jack (1961).

After Marcel Pagnol, it was Christian-Jaque who made the best use of Fernandel in the 1930s, and whilst Raphaël le tatoué isn't quite up to the standard of his previous François Premier (1937), it is still a cut above the rest of most of the comic actor's films of this decade.  It helps that there is another comedy heavyweight on board, namely Armand Bernard, to prevent this from being a one-man show, and the other bonus is a gorgeous Madeleine Sologne, looking surprisingly at home in this lively lowbrow comedy.  Better known for more serious fare such as Jean Delannoy's L'Éternel retour (1943) and Pierre Chenal's La Foire aux chimères (1946), Sologne brings a touch of class to what might otherwise have been a routine, male-dominated comedy, aided and abetted by Monique Rolland, an even feistier 30s glamour girl.

In common with many of his films of this period, Fernandel gets to exercise his vocal chords with three sprightly musical numbers - Irai-je ou n'irai-je pas?,  Un dur, un vrai, un tatoué and Zim la boum ho ho - all of which fit neatly into the narrative.  These amiable little ditties were contributed by Casimir Oberfeld, a great composer of operetta and film scores who sadly ended his days at Auschwitz in 1945 after failing to evade capture by the Nazis.  Following the leisurely paced build-up to the best gag, the film suddenly goes into hyperdrive with a crazily speeded-up car race, next to which Monte Carlo or Bust look like an Ingmar Bergman drama.  Raphaël le tatoué is easily one of the silliest of Fernandel's films but don't let that put you off - it is also one of his funniest.

Film Synopsis

Modeste Manosque finds himself in trouble when he is spotted by his employer at Luna Park one evening in the company of a pretty blonde Aline.  He is supposed to be at work - guarding his boss's car factory.  He has his cousin Romeo to thank for getting him into this mess.  Modeste is habitually a timid soul and diligent employee, but when Romeo outlined the attractions of Luna Park to him he could hardly resist.  And now he faces the chop, since his employer, Roger Drapeau, is hardly the most forgiving of individuals.  In fact, he is something of a tyrant.  If Drapeau could get away with guillotining his staff, he would do so, with relish.

Modeste is ready to accept his dismissal when he has a sudden brainwave.  Why not pretend that he has a twin brother?  It was Raphaël le tatoué, the brother who turned out badly, that his employer saw in the park, not him!  Incredibly, Drapeau swallows the lie hook, line and sinker, so Modeste's job is saved.  What the timorous watchman hadn't expected is the fantastic plan that his employer then comes up with to win him a forthcoming marathon car race.  The plan is for Modeste and his brother Raphaël to take alternate stages in the competition, thereby guaranteeing Drapeau's car will win the competition because no one will be able to tell the two drivers apart.

To keep his job, Modeste has no choice but to go along with the madcap scheme, although he rapidly comes to regret doing so.  Not only does he have to keep switching his identity, from himself to his loathsome brother and back again, he doesn't have a moment's rest as the exhausting marathon blazes across the country, cheered by crowds of excited on-lookers.  Fair play is not something that any of his competitors seem to know the meaning of, so, in addition to keeping up his increasingly ludicrous pretence, Modeste must work hard to thwart his rivals' attempts to knock him out of the race.  Needless to say, this is one episode in his life that the watchman will not look back on in his old age with any fondness, but at least he ends up winning the prize he most craves - Aline.