Today's choice is a very silly but perfect tropical desert island choice, “Le gendarme en balade/The Troops on Vacation” (1970). The Gendarme films, like most Louis de Funès films (and Carry Ons or Gaidai comedies) have an unpretentious, seemingly unintentionally chaotic joy characteristic of that decade, if that’s what you’re into (it’s exactly what I’m into). The fourth in the series opens with the best possible plot: the gendarmes no longer appear to be gendarmes, but have been made to retire and are replaced with a much younger, fitter group. The old rug is swept from under their feet as these friends poignantly leave their lives in beloved St. Tropez and decide what to do with their lives. When one of their own (Sgt. Fougasse, played by Jean Lefebvre) appears to have become amnesiac after an accident, the troop reunites to find him, help him regain his memories, and maybe relive their own as they secretly return to duty (and misadventure).
My personal highlights in the whole movie are in the first 30 minutes, and each one is a whole gem on its own. When Cruchot has to move to his wife’s French countryside manor, he slowly descending into comically miserable boredom (fishing in a lake where a servant helpfully attaches little minnows to his hook, being hoisted onto a horse as Paul Préboist adorably, forgetfully retells him nursery tales, with some delightfully violent, cathartic chaos with a curate and the butler). We get a hilarious jaunt down country roads as Cruchot, Gerber, Merlot, and the rest of the happy gang sing absolute nonsense on their way to the Pensionnaire to rescue (kidnap) Fougasse. After getting into their old uniforms to patrol traffic, they hope the high of memories and the whistles have jogged his old memory. And thence does our Gallic Dad’s Army band of heroes return to St. Trospete (Tropez) for even more Xo
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