Darry Cowl Movies

French filmmakers Gérard Bitton and Michel Munz write and direct the comedy Ah! Si j'etais Riche (If I Were a Rich Man). Salesman Aldo (Jean-Pierre Darroussin) is getting divorced from his wife Alice (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi). When he unexpectedly wins ten million euros in the lottery, he has to maintain the secret until the divorce is final. Though entitled to take half of his earnings, she's momentarily distracted by an affair with his boss, Gérard (Richard Berry). Co-writer/director Michel Munz also provides the original music. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

Misunderstandings create romantic mayhem in this French comedy. Joanna Martin is an investigative television reporter who has lived happily with prominent lawyer Samuel Bosquier for over 15 years. The trouble begins when her station assigns Joanna to investigate the phony marriage/immigration racket. Wanting to prove that such bogus unions are absurdly easy to obtain, she steals the identity of her sister (a spinster) and 'marries" Pavel, a recently emigrated Hungarian laborer. Unfortunately, she says nothing of her assignment to Samuel. He never would have found out had he not run across a letter she had written on behalf of a colleague to help her escape her abusive husband. Reading the letter, poor Samuel begins believing that his beloved Joanna has been untrue. He suffers a breakdown and begins getting in trouble with the law. At the same time, Joanna develops her own problems when a government official begins suspects the reporter's marriage to Pavel is a sham. The dogged official so badgers them, they the two stage an elaborate scenario to prove themselves bonafide spouses. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Charles (Charles Vanel) is a 100-year-old perfume magnate who decides to marry the equally ancient Emmanuelle (Denis Grey) in the French sex comedy. Company executives and family members scramble for position in the wake of the surprising announcement. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

In a first-time production by television comedians and café-theater actors, this is a slightly shallow comedy about a novice private detective and his cohorts, out to capture a feared "telephone killer" who strangles his victims (all female) with a phone cord. "The Commissioner" (Jean-Claude Brialy) runs the police investigation -- a kind of investigative competition with the amateur sleuths. A series of episodic sequences, comedic situations, and gags carry the action through to the final roll of credits, helped only a little by cameos from Michel Galabru, Jean Yanne, and others. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Having just seen a successful robbery, a man (Daniel Auteuil) and his roommate (Gerard Jugnot) are inspired to rob a bank themselves for some ready cash. When they burst in on the bank with their toy machine guns, most of the tellers and staff are frightened and wary, but in one case, a member of the bank staff has to show the robbers how to carry out their plan because they really do not know what they are doing. After getting to know the robbers better, the bank staff are struck by a serious conflict of interest -- should they remain loyal to the bank or not? ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

The setting for this story is Rahatlcoum, a Roman colony in North Africa, but the "colonists" watch television, have gay bars, trade unions, and traffic problems -- something like the "Flintstones" in an Afro-French incarnation, slipping around on Monty Pythonesque dialogue. A gay Jules César's (Michel Sarrault) expensive vacation causes the population to grumble and gripe, they would rather have mechanic Ben Hur Marcel (Coluche) take Jules' place as their exalted leader. Once she gets out of jail, Cleopatra (Mimi Coutellier) declares that old Ben is actually her long-lost half-brother, and lo and behold, Marcel of the chariot taxis is named the new pharaoh, Aminemphet. French critics loved this film and American critics hated it, leading one to suspect that being French helps considerably in responding to its humor. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Marcello Mastroianni stars in this French farce, an absurd "western" set in Paris, with Mastroianni as the incurably vain General George Armstrong Custer. Richard Nixon is the American president, but everyone is costumed appropriately for the previous century. Buffalo Bill (Michel Piccoli), the famous scout, is here portrayed as a limp-wristed bungler. Ugo Tognazzi plays one of Custer's Native American opponents; he runs a curio shop selling Native artifacts made in sweatshops by white women. The climactic battle is held in a large construction excavation where Les Halles market used to be. The language the two sides use to justify their conflict is lifted from that used in the then-current Vietnam War. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide