Under their aging captain Raimu, a disorganized force of cavalrymen await an inspection by the general.
I wasn't surprised to see Raimu as the bow-legged, kind-hearted lush in charge in this service comedy, nor Fernandel as a private, constantly beset by conflicting orders that continually add to his days in detention. Jean Gabin, however, is another matter, in concert with René Donnio (best remembered for playing Quixote) as two insubordinate, thieving, lazy low-lives.
It's based on a novel by Georges Courteline, and at times seems more contemptible than funny. As so often, it's up to Raimu to hold together its disparate pieces with irony and sadness that in the end make it work under the direction of Maurice Tourneur. Raimu plays a man risen from the ranks, who has never forgotten his humanity and men he went war with, and cannot bring himself to impose any sort of discipline. Do they steal from the local innkeeper? He pays out of his pocket. Are two men AWOL? He spills ink on the page to hide their malfeasance. He hopes for promotion to colonel, but knows he will never get it, and that's all right. As he does elsewhere, he plays a character both contemptible and lovable.
He died in 1946, age 62.
I wasn't surprised to see Raimu as the bow-legged, kind-hearted lush in charge in this service comedy, nor Fernandel as a private, constantly beset by conflicting orders that continually add to his days in detention. Jean Gabin, however, is another matter, in concert with René Donnio (best remembered for playing Quixote) as two insubordinate, thieving, lazy low-lives.
It's based on a novel by Georges Courteline, and at times seems more contemptible than funny. As so often, it's up to Raimu to hold together its disparate pieces with irony and sadness that in the end make it work under the direction of Maurice Tourneur. Raimu plays a man risen from the ranks, who has never forgotten his humanity and men he went war with, and cannot bring himself to impose any sort of discipline. Do they steal from the local innkeeper? He pays out of his pocket. Are two men AWOL? He spills ink on the page to hide their malfeasance. He hopes for promotion to colonel, but knows he will never get it, and that's all right. As he does elsewhere, he plays a character both contemptible and lovable.
He died in 1946, age 62.