User reviews

Forty years ago I saw it, it was a great laugh as well as a fantastic personal actor's performance of Robert Hirsch. Some scenes and best lines, and the soundtrack too, are still on my mind. I simply wonder : why was the film never released again, neither for movie theaters nor TV or VHS/DVD? (or at least, I have never been able to locate it). I cannot understand this, for a film that is not just a comedy, but also an interesting witness of the time when the French public opinion was 100% pro-Israeli (this obviously has changed since 1967 and the Six-Day war). I heard that the film is not distributed owing to a dispute over its ownership. Please, whoever has part of the rights to this film, let me and other frustrated viewers see it again ! MA Grumelin, France

Robert Hirsch joins the ranks of Jerry Lewis, Peter Sellers, and Alec Guinness in portraying multiple roles. This story is of a Jewish playboy's seven sons (played by Hirsch) who must meet in Israel to recite the memorial prayer for him, in order to receive their inheritance. The title comes from the non-observant son's (American) attempts to contact his family on the Sabbath, when work is impossible. There is sharp dialogue between the deceased and his own dead father (also portrayed by Hirsch. Must see, if you can find it.

Alex Joffé was never considered an important director,but he made a handful of good movies ,which are still pleasant to Watch,and sometimes far from being derivative.

"Six Heures A Perdre"(1946)in which a man is mistaken for another one ;a traveler who is just passing by and plays the part of another one;a story with an unexpected end.

"Les Fanatiques",a film in real time ,dealing with terrorism and some kind of disaster movie ,ahead of its time

"Fortunat" ,one of Bourvil's best part ,and in some sequences a hymn to friendship between an average French and a Jewish family ,during the Occupation.

"Les Cracks " ,his final work,featured a young girl dressed up as a boy, a subject which you also find in "Pas Question Le Samedi" .

"Pas Question Le Samedi " :you shall not work on Sabbath . This 1964 comedy (which went unnoticed the very year when "Le Corniaud" became one of France's biggest blockbusters) borrows from Capra ("It's a wonderful life: the divine intervention,the dad/son exchange,the final sequence , recalls sometimes George and his guarding angel),Wilder (the tango scene directly comes from "some like it hot" if we reverse the sexes )

But it is Robert Hirsh's tour de force :he plays twelve (you read well) different characters,including a woman ,equalling Alec Guiness ,Jerry Lewis ,and his illustrious compatriots Fernandel and Michel Simon;like them ,he can inject emotion in a scene :you will be moved when the son whose father died in a concentration camp is not interested in money anymore (thus smashing to pieces a cliché about Jews).

The screenplay is often funny,witty ,sometimes a bit muddled ,but there is never a dull moment.By fusing Tourneur's "Péchés De Jeunesse" (1941),Lubitsch's "Heaven can wait" (1943)and the classic story of the search for heirs ,Alex Joffé ,in his own modest way,brings it all back home.