Jacques Legras Movies
- 1989
In this routine sex comedy, Jean Chabert (Philippe Khorsand) is the newspaper editor called on to revive the fortunes of a magazine featuring nude women. He is continually distracted by sex-starved secretaries, erotically excited readers, and marital trouble. Jean's dream job soon turns onto a nightmare, as he seriously considers life in a monastery to escape his crazy world. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Philippe Khorsand, Stéphane Audran, (more)
- 1989
Set in the 1960s this comedy, based on the autobiographical novel of the same title by Haitian author Dany Laferriere this comedy centers on the sexploits of an aspiring African writer living in Montreal. When not clacking away on his novel (same as the title), he is out picking up white women from the local cafes. Known only as "Man," his women remain similarly anonymous, though he does ascribe them names based on the qualities he uses to differentiate them. "Miz Literature" is his main squeeze. The whole idea behind the film is to take a deeper look at racial stereotypes. Unfortunately it only succeeds in leeringly reinforcing them. The title of this film generated considerable controversy in the US. Many major newspapers refused to run the complete title, opting for ellipsis or publishing it in French. The NAACP lobbied unsuccessfully to have the name changed and some theaters refused to show the film. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Isaach de Bankolé, Roberta Bizeau, (more)
- 1986
The clash in this Philippe De Broca comedy between a bored middle-class stiff and a much more exciting, lawless female offers no new insights into the genre. Hubert Durieux (Claude Brassuer) works in a staid bank job and has to put up with demands from his ex-wife and a daughter who may not have made the right choice in a husband. Other females plague him, but the one who turns him around is a gypsy (Valerie Kaprisky) who first gets his attention by stealing his car. Once she has captured his manly interest, she tricks and cons him into a daring adventure that shatters the moralistic four walls he has built around himself. Some of the Romany (gypsy) population may not be too happy with this stereotypical portrayal, no matter how charming the thief. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Claude Brasseur, Valérie Kaprisky, (more)
- 1983
In a comedy that is dead-in-the-water, a disconnected series of events serves as a framework for Jerry Lewis to put on his stock-in-trade mugging act. He plays a Las Vegas policeman visiting his ex-wife in France, only to be caught up in the shenanigans of a group of art thieves. His ex-wife has remarried and her husband is undercover among the art thieves, carrying out an assignment given him by his superiors in the police force. Inevitably, the current husband and the ex-husband are bound to clash. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jerry Lewis, Michel Blanc, (more)
- 1973
This dark French comedy satirizes suburban living. Marthe Keller and Jacques Higelin play a newly married couple who have just moved into the suburbs. Nearly everything is oppressive: among other things, the walls of their house are too thin and their neighbors harangue them with complaints of all kinds. They also suffer from the difficulties of the commute to work. When this routine nearly drives the wife to suicide, they are both relieved when their house literally blows up around them. They then discover another set of indignities while they are at the hospital. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marthe Keller, Jacques Higelin, (more)
- 1972
- R
Their previous two films made the Charlots, a French jazz and rock ensemble, a successful comedy troupe. In this film the bumbling quartet demolish a bullfight, a lovely vamp's house and the yacht they have gotten jobs on. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Les Charlots, Jacques Legras, (more)
- 1970
- R
Dany (Samantha Eggar) is the ad agency secretary to Caldwell (Oliver Reed) in this psychological crime drama. She is asked to drive him to the airport and park the car in the lot after working at his home the night before. Getting in the wrong lane, she decides to use the car for a weekend getaway and return in time to collect Caldwell upon his return. Soon she is recognized in places she has never been before. She picks up a hippie (John McEnery) and makes love to him only to find he has stolen the car in the morning. Dany finds the car and the hippie, but there is now a dead body in the back seat. She finds where the dead man lived and takes the body to the house. Dany finds erotic nude photos of herself in the strange man's apartment even though the two had never met. She begins to suspect that her boss and his sluttish wife Anita (Stephane Audran) are setting her up to take the fall for the man's murder. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Samantha Eggar, Oliver Reed, (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 comedy concerns an inventor (Robert Dhery) of a boat who is fired by his violent, irascible boss when the project is completed. The boat, christened Le Petit Baigneur, is wanted by the Boss (Louis De Funes), who pulls out all the stops to possess the coveted craft. Author-actor-director Dhery wrote this story especially for the comedic styling of De Funes, one of Frances most popular comedians at the time of the feature's release. His "slow burn" is reminiscent of American actor James Finlayson, who perfected the technique in the silent-film era and continued his success in countless films, usually being tormented by the antics of Laurel and Hardy. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Louis de Funès, Robert Dhéry, (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)
In this French comedy, one little white lie leads to a series of whoppers as a Frenchman visiting London soon discovers. The French fellow has gone to London with his friends to catch a soccer match. He then must go to the dentist where, just for fun, he puts on a British policeman's uniform. Dressed as a bobby, he scares away some robbers. Unfortunately, he cannot tell them the truth because he is embarrassed to open his mouth and reveal the two teeth he lost at the soccer match. A chase ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1965
Lady L (Sophia Loren) is an 80-year-old woman who recalls her amorous adventures in flashback in this light sex comedy. While working as a laundress, Lady L falls for the gambler and anarchist Armand (Paul Newman), who gets mixed up with an inept group trying to assassinate the senile Prince Otto (Peter Ustinov). She ends up marrying the suave aristocrat Dicky (David Niven) in this entertaining but uneven feature. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sophia Loren, Paul Newman, (more)
- 1964
Henri (Robert Dhery) joins a group of rowdy soccer fans who travel from France to London two days before he is supposed to be married, and he goes to the dentist after his two front teeth are knocked out in a melee with rival fans. Sight gags include a busload of drunken fans trying to evade the police in a rare working combination of Gallic and British humor. Diana Dors appears as herself in this feature directed and co-written by Dhery. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Dhéry, Colette Brosset, (more)
- 1961
In this French variation on Mark Twain's Man with a Million story, a man's life is completely changed by the acquisition of a new car. Marcel, a Chaplainesque factory worker, sets out to buy an old motorcycle and ends up getting a new Cadillac convertible (the "beautiful American" of the title) for $100. He loses his job and suffers other misadventures, but is then amazed at how people treat him when they learn he owns the prestigious vehicle. Amusing little farce makes a few telling points about the pretensions of the very rich. ~ Michael P. Rogers, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Dhéry, Colette Brosset, (more)
- 1953
A bevy of beautiful strippers team up with a handful of risqué comedians in this feature that documents a typical burlesque show from 1953. Filmed at the Follies Theater in Los Angeles, CA, Peek-a-Boo includes pulse-quickening dance numbers from Venus (billed as "the World's Most Exciting Body"), Virginia Valentine, Suzette, Jennie Lee, and Sherry Winters, with additional routines from the DuPonts and the glamorous hoofers of the Peek-a-Boo Lovlies. Funnymen Leon DeVoe, Jack Mann, Billy Foster, and Johnny Maloney deliver the laughs, and Pat O'Shea's vocals add some class to the proceedings. While a bit more daring in its humor than most of its brethren and willing to let its dancers briefly go without pasties, Peek-a-Boo did undergo a brief bit of prerelease censorship that removed the punch line from a comedy routine, which still appears in bowdlerized form on all existing prints. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
