Fernandel Movies
Born Fernand Joseph Desire Contandin, Fernandel was a great French comedy star with a long, toothy face and a shy manner. The son of a music-hall entertainer, he began performing while still a child; in his teens he supported himself in a variety of jobs while gaining experience as an amateur comedian and singer. In 1922 he turned professional, soon becoming popular in vaudeville, operettas, and music-hall revues. He debuted onscreen in 1930, going on to perform in many minor films before becoming very popular with his serious role in the screen adaptation of Maupassant's Le Rosier de Madame Husson (1932). For the next four decades he was France's top comedic actor, giving more than 100 comic performances onscreen; occasionally he also had dramatic roles. He was perhaps best-loved for his portrayal of the humorously indomitable, eccentric priest at war with the town's communist mayor in the "Don Camillo" series. Also popular outside of France, he occasionally appeared in Italian and American productions; his first Hollywood film was Around the World in Eighty Days (1956) in which he played David Niven's coachman. Fernandel also directed or co-produced a few of his own films. ~ All Movie Guide- 1951
The English-language title of La Table Aux-Creves is The Hunting Ground. Fernandel goes the "Raimu" route as a farmer whose wife unexpectedly commits suicide. The grieving husband tries to fathom the reasons for his wife's rash act, while the local townsfolk come up with a few bizarre theories of their own. Despite the grimness of the situation, Fernandel manages to find time for the comic "mugging" that brought him international fame. La Table Aux-Creves was adapted by its director Henri Verneuil from a novel by Marcel Ayme. The film was the first of several successful collaborations between star Fernandel and director Henri Verneuil. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fernandel, Maria Mauban, (more)
- 1951
Orson Welles provides the voice of God in this farce starring Fernandel as Don Camillo, a vicar who causes trouble for the town's communist-leaning mayor. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fernandel, Gino Cervi, (more)
- 1951
Autant-Lara's L'Auberge Rouge (The Red Inn) is black comedy at its very blackest. The scene is a rustic little inn in a remote rural area of France. The inn's proprietors Pierre (Carette) and Marie (Francoise Rosay) industriously support themselves by murdering the various stagecoach passengers who stop over at the inn, and then keep their valuables for themselves. As the story gets under way, a coach full of delightfully eccentric types pulls into the inn's courtyard, ripe for plucking. One of the passengers is a Monk (Fernandel), who learns of the innkeeper's homicidal schemes but is bound by the rules of the Confessional to reveal this information to no one. How can the monk secure the safety of his fellow passengers without betraying his vows? His solution--and the wickedly ironic coda that follows--will linger in the memory long after the final reel of L'Auberge Rouge tumbles over the spools. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fernandel, Françoise Rosay, (more)
- 1951
Two Italian films directed by Mario Soldati were released in Europe within two days of each other. The first was the lighthearted musical comedy Je Suis de la Revue. The vivacious Suzy Delair, more or less playing herself, stars as a popular actress making a personal appearance in Rome. The actress needs a glamorous new outfit for the occasion, but her specially designed dress is stolen by a beautiful sneak thief. While the couturier searches all seven hills of Rome to retrieve the dress, the audience is treated to a series of specialty acts. Among the artists spotlighted are Gallic comedian Fernandel and African-American entertainers Louis Armstrong, Katherine Dunham and the Nicholas Brothers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fernandel, Suzy Delair, (more)
- 1951
Previously filmed twice in 1933, Marcel Pagnol's satirical stage comedy Topaze was again adapted to the screen in 1936, this time with Pagnol himself as director (he would have directed the first version, but was contractually prohibited from doing so). This time around, Arnaudy stars as M. Topaze, the incorruptible schoolteacher who loses his job when he refuses to pass the unruly son of a wealthy and powerful businessman. Topaze decides to apply his intelligence and integrity to the world of business, only to discover that he's as susceptible to corruption as the next man. But though he loses his "soul," he gains the love of the beautiful mistress (Delia-Col) of his ex-business partner. Pagnol later directed the fourth version of Topaze in 1951, this one starring Fernandel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fernandel, Hélène Perdrière, (more)
Famed French actor and singer Fernandel headlines this comedy centered on a case of mistaken identity involving a hapless vacuum salesman. Door-to-door vacuum salesman Casimir has a strange knack for getting himself into complicated situations. One day, after knocking on the door of local artist Paul-André, Casimir finds himself in his biggest jam to date. After exchanging a series of romantic letters with wealthy South American Angelita, Paul-André has agreed to tie the knot. But now that Angelita is actually coming to town, Paul-André has gotten a paralyzing case of cold feet. By the time Angelita arrives in town Paul-André is already long gone, leaving the love-struck hotel owner to surmise that Casimir is the man who won her heart through correspondence. At first Casamir isn't quite sure how to get out of the predicament, but upon discovering that Angelita owns 1000 hotel rooms he surmises that could mean she needs just as many vacuum cleaners, and continues the ruse in order to make the big sale. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fernandel, Germaine Montero, (more)
- 1950
Produced in 1950, the French Three Sinners was adapted by Charles Plisnier from his own novel Meurtres. The film was billed as the dramatic debut of comic-actor Fernandel, and though it really wasn't, he acquits himself nicely in a rare serious assignment. The topic is euthanasia: Noel Annequin's (Fernandel) dying wife begs her husband to put her out of her misery. He does so, then confesses his crime to his three brothers, all pillars of the community. Pursuing their own selfish agendae, the brothers cart their sibling off to a lunatic asylum. Only Noel's niece Martine (Jeanne Moreau) remains loyal, and it is Martine who sets the wheels in motion for a happier ending than the audience has been conditioned to expect. Incidentally, the title is ironic: as the plot unfolds, the viewer realizes that Noel's hypocritical brothers are the real sinners of the piece. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fernandel, Raymond Souplex, (more)
- 1946
Petrus is a tailor-made vehicle for lantern-jawed French farceur Fernandel. The star plays a naïve photographer who falls in love with nightclub dancer Simone Simon. Though she travels in a more sophisticated crowd, Fernandel never gives up his dream that someday the girl will be his. And sure enough, thanks to a series of plot convolutions that would be ridiculous anywhere else but on the Silver Screen, Simon is finally won over by the stumbling shutterbug. Petrus was co-adapted by director Marc Allegret from the play by Marcel Achard. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fernandel, Pierre Brasseur, (more)
- 1945
Les Gueux Au Paradis (Hoboes in Paradise) stars two of Marseilles' favorite sons, Fernandel and Raimu. Set during the reign of Louis XV, the film casts Raimu as an innkeeper and Fernandel as his best friend. Dressed up as saints for a masquerade, the two pals are killed in a carriage mishap. They take a quick trip to Hell, where it is decided that they are inappropriately garbed, then ascend to Heaven, where it is determined that it isn't yet "their time." Our heroes are returned to life just in time to foil an attempt by the undertaker to seduce Raimu's "widow." Ironically, Les Gueux au Paradis was Raimu's next-to-last film; he died in 1946, shortly after the picture's release. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gaby Andreu, Fernandel, (more)
- 1945
Marcel Pagnol adapted the screenplay of Nais from a novel by Emile Zola. The usually mirth-provoking Fernandel plays it relatively straight as a hunchbacked itinerant worker. He loves Jacqueline Pagnol from afar, but is prevented by his handicap from expressing his ardor. Thus he vicariously romances Pagnol by smoothing the path of her relationship with a handsome villager. At the risk of sounding flippant: Nais is nice. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fernandel, Jacqueline Bouvier, (more)
- 1944
Le Mystere de Saint-Val stars Fernandel as a mousy insurance-office clerk who dreams of being a great detective. The clerk's uncle, who also happens to be his boss, tries to cure his nephew of his delusions by sending him off on a wild-goose chase. As things turn out, Fernandel gets mixed up in a murder case, culminating in a spooky night in a forbidding old castle. All the standard "scare" jokes are in attendance, with Fernandel grimacing and mugging to his heart's content. Filmed in the late 1930s, this frantic comedy-mystery was released in the U.S. in 1945. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fernandel, Germaine Kerjean, (more)
- 1943
That matchless Gallic comedian Fernandel is but one of the many spicy ingredients of Love Around the Clock. The film's original title, La Cavalcade des Heures, was closer to the central theme: man's relation to, and utter reliance on, Time. Eight different stories are offered herein, each playlet illustrating how important the clock is to one's destiny. In the Fernandel sequence, the actor is cast as a bum who tries to cadge a meal in a restaurant. Most critics felt that the best of the dramatic vignettes was the one starring Tramel as a browbeaten husband who decides -- disastrously -- to alter his daily, set-in-stone routine. Throughout, Pierre Caillol appears as Time personified, making wry comments about the human comedy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fernandel, Charles Trenet, (more)
