The Gendarme and the Extra-Terrestrials

I saw this movie at the cinema back in the day, and I remember I was slightly disappointed then because there were no actual alien monsters, just humans making metallic noises and stiff movements. However, rewatching it today I'm impressed what a clever little movie this is. Going into a genre which is clearly beyond its budget, arming its heroes only with a bucket of water, it plays virtuously on the classic doppelganger theme. Again and again, aliens and their flying saucer appear, but who will believe the eyewitnesses that they are among us? Cruchot and his team on their 5th mission (of 6 in total) are fighting an amusing battle, dedicated to the max. The flick was definitely better than I remembered it.

Le Gendarme et les Extra Terrestres is one of the last episodes in the "gendarme"-series, situated in the beautiful south of France (St. Tropez).

Louis de Funes again plays Ludovic Cruchot. When his colleague-gendarme Beaupied (Maurice Risch) sees a flying saucer, no one believes him. Not much later however, Cruchot also sees the saucer. The two gendarmes try to convince their colleagues that they must do something to defeat the aliens, especially when it becomes clear that these aliens can copy the looks of anyone they like, including the gendarmes. But how do you catch aliens you can not distinguish from your own colleagues?

Don't complain about the special effects. They are bad. The saucer, when flying, is very poorly pasted in the film, especially in the final scene where it flies over the St Tropez harbor. It doesn't matter, even contributes to the overall fun-factor of this movie.

The movie contains more than enough memorable scenes, that is if you like its kind of humour. De Funes singing in a nuns-choir is hilarious. De Funes patting everybody on the back (to check if they sound hollow) and stabbing his boss in his ass (because he thinks he's an alien) is great. Also the scenes where Baupied's alien look-a like offers him a flower and where De Funes' cap is set on fire by an alien are classics.

The movie gives him enough room to display his famous neurotic character. A must see for fans of De Funes and of French comedy. 7/10 points.

The gendarme of Saint-Tropez this time are saving the world from an invasion of hollow aliens. When I was a kid this was my favorite from the series and I watched it the most. Not particularly high-quality movie, but full of healthy humor.

7/10

Louis de Funes and company discover that a flying saucer has landed, and the alien can imitate humans almost perfectly, if you ignore minor details like drinking gasoline, shooting lasers from its eyes and sounding like a hollow metal drum. But then nobody is perfect.

Jacques Tati once said that if he wanted to, he could have made Hulot movies and wound up a millionaire. He offered some titles, including 'Hulot in St. Tropez'. A bunch of standard gags are included, including de Funes dressing up like a nun and riding a bicycle.

Odd as it may sound, I consider "Le Gendarme et les Extra-Terrestres" as one of movies that sparked my personal interest (read: obsession) with Sci-Fi & horror movies. That is bizarre because the movies of French comedy legend/genius Louis de Funès, and particularly the cycle of "The Gendarme" movies, are straightforward comedies revolving around silly characters and absurd situations. This entry (the fifth and one before last in the series) is a slapstick comedy too, but it was the only one in the series to also feature a couple of Sci-Fi elements.

With their textbook spacecraft, aliens land in St. Tropez and Marshall Ludovic Cruchot and his team of dimwit gendarmes are up against extraterrestrial perpetrators that can duplicate the exact looks, voices, and behavior of human beings. The alien enemies are nevertheless easy to recognize, though, as they make the sound of a hollow metal drum if you touch them, they drink motor oil, and the totally break apart when in contact with water.

Admittedly, in retrospect, the concept and especially the special effects are incredibly tacky, cheap, and borderline laughable. And yet, when I was 6-7 years old, and the movie got shown on television every couple of months, it simultaneously fascinated and frightened me! Notably the sight of an alien that, after the water of a broken aquarium poured over him, robotically stumbles over the beach and fully disintegrates, left quite a big impression on me. Of course, it primarily still is a comedy with all the regular de Funès trademarks, but it's a nostalgic and fun example of how non-horror and non-SciFi writers/directors interpret the alien invasion subgenre.