Un drôle de caïd (1964)
Directed by Jacques Poitrenaud

Film Review

Un drôle de caïd (a.k.a. Une souris chez les hommes) was the last 'little comedy' that Louis de Funès lent his talents to before he became a massive star of French cinema.  His next two films - Le Gendarme de Saint-Tropez (1964) and Fantômas (1964) - made him an instant box office magnet, and top billing in every subsequent film was assured for the man who, after over a hundred film appearances. had finally become a big screen legend.  It's hard to believe, but in Un drôle de caïd de Funès was billed second, after the now virtually forgotten Dany Saval (and it's not hard to see why she is virtually forgotten).  With her high-pitched voice, endless girly tittering and ear-shattering screams, Saval's presence is in this film is the one and only thing that mars its enjoyment value.

Fortunately, in addition to the wonderful inventive comic giant that is Louis de Funès, the cast boasts two other eminently likeable actors to take the sting out of Saval's mousy histrionics - Maurice Biraud and Dany Carrel.  The modest Monsieur Biraud is the perfect stooge for de Funès whilst the big-haired Mademoiselle Carrel is an essential adornment to any film (as our friend H.G. Clouzet demonstrated in his film La Prisonnière a few years later).  Jean Lefebvre, another regular in the Gendarme series of films, shows up in the latter part of the film to help keep the comedy express from running out of steam, and two other great comedy performers, Dora Doll and Claude Piéplu, put in a fleeting but worthy appearance.

Un drôle de caïd may not be quite in the league of de Funès's subsequent comedy classics but it is an enjoyably daft entry in the comedy-caper movie line, a genre that was pretty well mined to exhaustion in the 1960s.  Unlike many films of this kind, this one benefits from a respectable script penned by two authors of some repute - popular crime writer Albert Simonin and comedy dialogist par excellence Michel Audiard.  The previous year, Audiard had adapted one of Simonin's novels as Les Tontons flingueurs (1963), although Simonin is best-known as the author of the novel that became Touchez pas au grisbi (1954), one of the classic polars of French cinema.

Film Synopsis

Marcel and Francis are two small-time thieves.  Their attempt to break into an apartment one night is witnessed by Lucille, a neighbouring resident, who decides to try a little blackmail.  She will not report the crooks to the police providing they accept her as their boss.  Aware that Lucille is a former neighbour of his and knows his wife, Francis has no choice but to accept.  The first job Lucille proposes is to steal her aunt's valuable paintings.  Alas, the robbery attempt proves to be a disaster but, undeterred, the enterprising threesome are soon planning their next crime: to rob a Parisian department store...