The Sucker

This was playing on French TV when I was on a recent trip to France. I laughed often during this marvelous old film. Even though my understanding of the language is minimal, I enjoyed this movie very much.

It has some wonderful physical comedy and the vintage cars and clothes are a treat to watch. The main character, who remains oblivious throughout the story, is a lovable clueless man. The crooks are appropriately stupid.

The camp shower scene is a classic. Even my husband laughed out loud during that ... a rare occurrence.

I wish I knew where to buy this film with English subtitles to watch it on a dreary winter night! It would a fun one to share with others to raise serotonin levels for all.

Le Corniaud is a hilarious french movie from the sixties. It is the kind of feel good movie I like to watch on a sunny sunday afternoon.

The story is a ridiciulously funny crime story about a guy (Bourvil) who just left home for the holidays when he gets hit by a car (owned by De Funes). De Funes settles the case by providing Bourvil with a brand new cadilac to continue his holiday to Italy. Of course Bourvil does not know that he is now smuggling gold, heroin and a giant diamand hidden in that cadilac. The coupling of actors Louis de Funes and Bourvil is ace, the locations are beautiful (France and Italy during summer) and the fun is enormous. Sad thing only that Studio Canal just released all Louis de Funes movies on dvd without any subtitles... sham

One of the classics of French Comedy from the 1960's, Le Corniaud appears regularly on French TV, and is available on DVD and VHS. The film features 2 of France's greatest comedians, both now dead, Louis de Funes and Bourvil ( real name André Raimbourg ). De Funès manic gesticulations coupled with Bourvil's apparent naiveness in a sombre affaire of driving a car loaded with contraband across the Italian border and into France provide a never-ending series of hilarious situations against the 1960's backcloth of carefree life on the Mediterranean. As they say " they just don't make 'em like that any more ". This film together with " La Grande Vadrouille " which features the same stars constitute milestones in the history of popular French comic cinema.

This new team-up of Bourvil and Fufu have the same recipe that "La Grande Vadrouille". Bourvil is a kind, simple mind whereas Fufu is a Machiavellian crook. However, Bourvil always bores me while Fufu is a delight: he may be nervous but i can feel behind a great humanity and i really like his beat.

Here, they are filmed in Italy in the sixties and it's cool to see how it was like 50 years ago. Personally, i found this movie funnier than the one mentioned above but it lacks its dramatic background as well. The idea of someone who is spied who is spied is original and I don't think it has been used often. Maybe the great surprise of this movie should be its score because Delerue finds a lot of very great themes!

And the car repair scene at night edited with Rossini's TARENTELLA is one of the best comedy scene ever: it's crazy, funny, punchy, lyrical: everything is told without a single words: BRAVISSIMA🇮🇹

I first watched Le Corniaud when I was still a student in colonial Mozambique and found it roaringly funny - the scenes of sugar cubes placed in the gasoline tank (twice) with de Funes promptly getting his aides to suck out the gasoline; that marvellous camp shower scene; and Bourvil missing the plot altogether, unwittingly dispersing the contraband goods all over the place and always finding gorgeous women for company - it is all zany, unpretentious fun from a time long gone when fun could be politically incorrect without anyone giving it a second thought or being offended by it.

I have watched Le Corniaud twice since Mozambique and though the story is a bit patchy the leading duo is in top form, the Italian scenery is to die for, and it has such wonderful vignettes that I cannot help but laugh and laugh and laugh.