Crooks in Clover (1963)

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Purely Joyful Movie!

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

All right, it was fun, I'll admit it...Lino Ventura doing his thing, a Simonin adaptation (like Touchez Pas au Grisbi, one of my favorite films), lots of Culture Clash between "high" and "low" language - illustrated brilliantly in Michel Audiard's script. A classic "modern composer" scene (I collect those), some funny music cues (especially the church organ playing the movie's theme as the wedding processional). But it ain't a great movie. Another reviewer here called it something like "the worst - directed French classic", and that sounds about right. It's a movie of bits and moments. The more serious and sustained the action scene is supposed to be, the more unsuccessful the movie is. I fell asleep trying to watch it on DVD. But it works in the theater - pretty much...

This French film is a marvel for its dialogues, they are, unfortunately, and like most French comedies, completely untranslatable into another language. Not only is it humorous expressions, but in addition, a number of expressions are comical in their employment against, by transforming nouns into adjectives or the reverse, by the use of expressions that do not match social milieu of the characters through the use of games typically french words without equivalence in another language. Most situations can be understood only if we know the French life, so it is normal that this cinematic gem have only limited success outside the French public.

After the Killer Tomatoes we now have the Killer Uncles (a more or less literal translation of an untranslatable movie). The level of word-play may be guessed at even by non-French speakers when the credits announce it is based on the novel 'To grisbi or not grisbi', which is, in itself, a nod to another novel and classic French movie 'Touchez-pas aux grisbi', with 'grisbi' in both cases being underworld slang for 'loot' in the sense of 'hot' money. Although it has all the trappings of a 'gangster' entry this is actually a comedy of bad manners involving two factions led respectively by Lino Ventura and Bernard Blier. While ex-wrestler Ventura has no problem acting tough Blier, arguably the best actor in the piece by light years and equally at home across the acting spectrum, plays it for laffs so that what we wind up with is a melange. Another French classic. 8/10

I agree with all reviewers of this film, though they don't seem to agree one with the other. The thing is they're all right depending on how you focus on it. The other point is most of the reviewers, if not all of them, are French. And that is the point. You have to be French, otherwise, you'll pass over what makes this film so brilliant. In other words, what would be the point watching "gone with the wind" being deaf and blind? Still, if you are able to catch the delicious subtleness and unbelievable richness of Parisian argot (slang spoken for over 500 years makes it vintage. doesn't it ?), it is definitely a must see. Still, I gave it a 10 -1 rating. 10 because it's worth it, minus 1 because it's French.