Bourvil Movies
French actor/singer Bourvil (his professional name taken from the Bourville district of his native Normandy) was musically inclined from his youth, when he played trumpet in a municipal band. Developing his singing while in military service, Bourvil first stepped on stage in 1937 as an amateur entertainer, using the stage name "Andrel." By 1938 he had become a fixture of the French music halls with his signature song, "Ignace," and at the time of the Nazi occupation Bourvil was an established radio performer. Though popular, it took Bourvil a while to develop his own style and stop imitating his idol, Gallic comedian Fernandel. Bourvil made his screen debut in a tiny part in Croisieres siderales (1941), but officially his first film was La Ferme du Pendu, filmed in 1943 and released outside France in 1945. An established comic performer, Bourvil did more stage than film work in the 1950s, though he was memorable as Planchet in the 1953 French Les Trois Mousquetoris,- and, less lovably, as the nasty innkeeper in the 1956 version of Les Miserables. Comparatively unknown to American audiences, Bourvil was given a wonderful moment in the Hollywood-financed war epic The Longest Day (1962), in which as the Mayor of Colleville he effusively greets the invading allied troops at Normandy and offers his negligible services as a soldier. The last of Bourvil's English-language appearances was in another all-star spectacular, Those Daring Young Men in Their Jaunty Jalopies (1969). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1970
Leon (Bourvil) is the owner of a cafe in a small town in occupied France in this comedic war story. Like most French of the time, he tries to get along with the German invaders. When his daughter (Sara Franchetti) brings home a downed British aviator, Leon becomes involved by helping the man escape to England. Through a strange turn of events, he accompanies the pilot back to Britain. Leon is thought to be a spy at first, but soon he is trained by British intelligence to help the Allied cause back in France. This was one of the last films for Bourvil, the beloved French comedian who often played the common man caught up in circumstances beyond his control. Terry-Thomas plays a British captain with typical flair. The color process is not credited. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bourvil, Sophie Desmarets, (more)
Corey (Alain Delon) is the young gun in the French underworld who has just been released from prison. Escaped convict Vogel (Gian-Maria Volonté) hides in the trunk of Corey's car. The two enlist the help of an alcoholic former cop (Yves Montand) for an elaborate jewelry-store robbery. Police inspector Mattei (Bourvil) whom Vogel escaped in the beginning of the film is on the case trying to recapture the criminals. He is not opposed to using blackmail techniques to get answers out of the unwilling witnesses and criminals brought in for questioning. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alain Delon, Bourvil, (more)
- 1969
- G
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This slapstick comedy concerns the annual auto race in Monte Carlo and boasts an international cast of all-star thespians. Sir Cuthbert Ware-Armitage (Terry-Thomas) is the scheming villain and auto tycoon who will stop at nothing to win the car race. When Chester (Tony Curtis) wins half of the car company in a card game with the villain, a winner-take-all, race is proposed. Bourvil, Dudley Moore and Jack Hawkins also appear in this lighthearted comedy. Jimmy Durante sings the title tune of this pic that features several exciting stunt-driving scenes that ensue between the beginning and end of the international racing competition. The film is an obvious take off of Those Magnificent Men And Their Flying Machines but fails to live up to the quality of it's predecessor. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bourvil, Peter Cook, (more)
- 1969
Laurent (William Holden) is willing to give his terminally ill son Pascal (Brook Fuller) anything to make his last days comfortable. The unfortunate boy is stricken with leukemia after being showered with radioactive poison when an airplane exploded. Laurent takes Pascal back to Paris where he and his girlfriend Catherine (Virna Lisi) and his war buddy Verdun (Andre Bourvil) try to cater to his every wish. He buys a farm tractor and with the help of the faithful Verdun steals some wolves from the Paris zoo. Father and son spend as much time as they are allowed in this sentimental family story. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Holden, Virna Lisi, (more)
- 1969
The Brain (Le Cerveau) is a tongue-in-cheek caper film with more twists and turns than a rural Oregon highway. David Niven plays The Brain, so named because it was he who mapped out the British Great Train Robbery (it says here). Now The Brain plans to lift a fortune in NATO money, which is being shipped by train from France to Belgium. Complicating matters are a pair of free-lance thugs (Jean-Paul Belmondo and Bourvil), who hope to steal The Brain's plans and claim the money for themselves. A plot device derived from The Lavender Hill Mob involves a 50-foot replica of the Statue of Liberty. An amusing closing-credits bit caps this exhilarating exercise. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bourvil, David Niven, (more)
- 1969
This sexually suggestive comedy also manages to simultaneously lampoon the French social security system. Chaminade (Bourvil) is the veterinarian who watches as a woman jumps off the roof of a small building. After the girl is caught by a folksinger with a striking physique, he rushes to offer assistance to the jumper and her hero. The woman is distraught over not having enough lovemaking, so the good doctor prescribes sex as the cure and enlists the folksinger to perform the services. When the word quickly gets around and love-starved women start lining up at the doctor's door for the folksinger's services, more men must be hired to satisfy the clientele. Soon the police and the judgmental tax inspector pay a visit to the clinic, which is under constant expansion and renovation. Chaminade takes the place of a stuttering government assemblyman and successfully argues for the service to be included in the social security payments in this offbeat comedy that relies on subtle innuendo instead of graphic depictions of sex. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bourvil, Francis Blanche, (more)
- 1968
This slapstick comedy concerns a college professor who stages a one-man vendetta against television. A hare-brained inventor has produced an aerosol spray that when applied effectively renders television antennae useless. Armand (Bourvil) enlists the help of a gymnast who scales heights to apply the spray to the receivers of his students to keep them from being polluted by the senseless medium. Soon the stuffy network executives launch an all-out search for the perpetrator as television revenues plummet. The police are soon called in to solve the mystery as the professor and his crew slowly move towards their ultimate goal of spraying the Eiffel tower. Armand demands an audience with the President and uses his threat to cut off all television to insure the meeting will take place. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bourvil, Francis Blanche, (more)
- 1968
This madcap comedy concerns a bicycle race from Paris to San Remo at the turn of the century. Duroc (Bourvil) has invented a bicycle with a new and improved coasting feature. He is forced to try out his new invention when he flees a bill collector who tries to impound his bicycle. He unintentionally ends up in a bicycle race and is soon followed by the collector, his own wife, and an oily, mustachioed villain. The villain pulls out all the dirty tricks from his bag to try and defeat the determined Duroc. When the bill collector sees the effectiveness of Duroc's invention, he conspires to fall in with the wealthy patron who financed the new bicycle. The race is full of twists and turns, treachery and humorous sight gags, giving the popular French comedian Bourvil a full canvass on which to display his comic talents. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bourvil, Dr. Robert Hirsch, (more)
- 1967
Beloved French comic Bourvil stars in a dramatic role as the compassionate magistrate Arnaud. He comes to the aid of the young law student Andre (Adamo) when the impoverished youth is falsely accused of murder. This plodding, moralistic drama preaches that troubled youths often need a second chance. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bourvil, Christine Delaroche, (more)
- 1966
In this British war comedy, set in WW II, a bomber crew is shot down over Paris during the Nazi occupation. They are helped out of the city by several good-hearted Frenchman. They make it to the steambath where they had an important rendezvous. They then begin the final part of their escape. A cross-eyed German inadvertently helps them. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Louis de Funès, Bourvil, (more)
- 1966
In this slapstick comedy of manners, Eugene (Bourvil) is a businessman who is framed by his crooked partner and thrown in prison. To save his business and escape a long jail term, he adopts three children he has never seen. Freed from prison, Eugene is trapped when the three moppets and their mothers all come to live with him. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bourvil, Jean Lefebvre, (more)
- 1966
Jean-Claude Roland and Lino Ventura play Nick and Laurent, a pair of not completely rehabilitated ex-convicts in Les Grandes Gueules. The twosome is hired by Hector (Bourvil), a well-meaning, unworldly sawmill owner. At first refusing to take their lumberjacking jobs seriously, the larcenous parolees gradually realize that a whole new life has been offered them by the ingenuous owner. A pleasant, leisurely comedy-drama, Les Grandes Gueules might have been more effective with a quarter hour or so whittled out of its 130-minute running time. The film's English-language title is Jailbirds' Vacation. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bourvil, Lino Ventura, (more)
- 1965
In this French farce, a lazy member of a family of down-and-out aristocrats refuses to help the destitute family survive. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bourvil, Jean Poiret, (more)
- 1965
Bourdin (Bourvil) is a ticket puncher on the Paris subway who writes a book about a train robbery in this routine comedy. After he is turned down by several publishers who find his story implausible, Bourdin recruits a gang of crooks to carry out the plan to prove it is possible. The plan backfires and he gets mixed up with thugs led by the notorious underworld figure Filippi (Paul Meurissa). ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bourvil, Paul Meurisse, (more)
- 1965
In this French comedy, a clever fellow proves himself smarter than the gangsters who would exploit him. The trouble begins in Paris when the vacationing hero accidentally gets into an auto accident with a smuggler. The crook is most apologetic for the mishap and kindly offers to let him drive his Cadillac to Bordeaux and continue with his holiday. The poor traveler doesn't know that the vehicle is a black market on wheels carrying everything from jewels to heroine. He is pursued by the smuggler and by a rival gang. He is so busy enjoying himself that he doesn't bother to look back at the gun battles raging behind him. He ends up picking up two hitchhiking women and continuing his leisurely journey. When he finally realizes that they are using him, he drives the crooks right to the police station. Later he discovers that the steering wheel of the car contains the largest diamond in the world. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Louis de Funès, Bourvil, (more)
- 1965
La Guerre Secrete is divided into four separate vignettes, each scene representing a day in the life of international espionage agents. Stories involve a secret agent (Vittorio Gassman) who goes undercover as a kidnapper, an attempt to impede a Russian attack on two submarines, and an undercover agent confronting a traitor in the Berlin offices of the CIA. Linking the stories is Robert Ryan as a US Intelligence chief. Terence Young directed the English-language sequences, while Christian-Jacques and Carlo Lizzani handled the French and Italian sequences, respectively. German director Werner Klinger's name does not appear on the US credits of The Dirty Game, inasmuch as his scenes were cut from all American prints. Dirty Game sank without a trace on its initial release, only to pop up on television, intermittently, throughout the '70s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bourvil, Robert Ryan, (more)
- 1964
Triquet (Bourvil) is a policeman who is forced to retire early when he nabs too many crooks while he is not on the clock in this satirical crime comedy. He captures a criminal who is headed for the guillotine, but the condemned man escapes when the instrument of death malfunctions. Triquet is called on to find the crook and convince him that, according to the law of the land, since the execution attempt failed, he is free from his death sentence. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bourvil, Jean-Louis Barrault, (more)
- 1963
In a biting, critical look at "justice" and how it does not necessarily work, director Christian-Jaque develops this tale of murder and deception via two principle, conniving characters and their upright opponents in the legal system. Catherine (Marina Vlady) is a heartless, self-serving woman miffed at her spouse's infidelity, who murders him while he is bedridden in the hospital by inserting a toxin into his next injection. She then renews an amorous relationship with a sharp and unscrupulous lawyer, knowing he could mount the best defense for her in court. The lawyer does just that, leaving the judge and the opposing attorney with a desire to see justice done but not much recourse to implement it. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pierre Brasseur, Marina Vlady, (more)
- 1963
- NR
In this WWII comedy, a French POW escapes and hides at an inn. After the war, he stays at the inn to help the innkeeper, whom he has become involved with, rather than return to his wife. When the innkeeper's husband shows up ten years later, the POW goes back to his wife, whom he finds married to the chef at the cafe he ran. His wife refuses to sleep with the chef until a divorce is granted. The chef returns home to Normandy, thinking that he is out of luck, but the POW follows him and tells him that if he takes responsibility for his wife and the cafe, he will grant the divorce. The POW's loneliness is relieved when the innkeeper tells him that her husband has gone to Siberia and they are free to get married. ~ Steve Huey, All Movie Guide
- 1963
Josefa (Anna Magnani) is an Italian immigrant operating a small grocery store in France. The people of the town are indifferent to her until the rumor she will receive a monetary fortune from an American gangster relation. The mayor tries to butter her up, and a stranger poses as her long-lost son. Everyone in town treats her with respect over her impending financial windfall. Eventually, the townsfolk are incited to riot and burn down her store before she escapes with the young stranger, who is really the partner of her estranged offspring, and she vents her frustrations on the hypocritical people who again turn their back on her when she doesn't produce the money. French comedian Bourvil adds his patented touches of humor. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bourvil, Anna Magnani, (more)
- 1962
A lovely young nurse finds herself framed for the murder of a hospital patient who died after she administered an injection. She goes to court where eventually, the real killer is revealed by his own jilted lover in this French drama. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1962
Les Culottes Rouges, directed by Alex Joffe is a fairly routine wartime drama about two very different men who end up hiding out and running from the enemy together. Antoine (Laurent Terzieff) first comes across as an adventurous, brave, and selfless soldier when he is forced to take refuge with Fendard (Bourvil) during one of his escapes. Fendard himself is a Caspar Milquetoast, afraid of his own shadow and unwilling to take any chances for the sake of Antoine. But after the two POWs are forced to make another break for it, they each undergo a definite character transformation that almost reverses their personalities. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bourvil, Laurent Terzieff, (more)
