The Sucker (1965)

Sick Product of a Sick System

A Masterpiece!

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

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!

Of course this movie is dated (43 years by now), but in my opinion that rather adds to the fun. We get to see quite many street scenes of the time, in France and Italy, and of course lots of cars from that period (including two Rolls-Royces). For railfans, even a "Picasso" railcar is thrown in...I'm normally not a fan of Louis de Funès' frantic humour, which is also evidenced here, but he also has very admirable (non-talking) moments, like the Cadillac repair to a classical music score, or the muscle comparison in the camping shower.In all, a turbulent comedy plus Italian road movie. Very lovely. The German DVD I bought (Universal 2008, titled "Louis, das Schlitzohr") also has English, Spanish and Dutch dubs, but not the original French soundtrack. Still, jolly good fun which made my Friday night perfect :^)

Outstanding location shooting in two of Europe's most photogenic countries (Italy and France), a comic 'caper' plot with guns that don't really kill plus two of the greatest comedians in French cinema - Louis de Funes and Bourvil - has to be an unbeatable parlay and in fact the following year they did it again - or something very, very similar in Le Grande Vadrouille in which the director of both films, ex-actor Gerard Oury, brought his daughter, Danielle Thompson, on board as co-scriptwriter. It was also a nice touch to name the Louis de Funes character after the Armenian-American writer William Saroyan, now largely forgotten but once hugely popular whose schtick was humorous whimsey. The plot won't really stand scrutiny under a harsh light; Bourvil's 2CV is totally written off by the roller of de Funes even before he has left Paris on his proposed driving holiday in Italy. Knowing a rube when he sees one de Funes makes Bourvil an offer he can't refuse; the 'loan' of a Cadillac which needs to be driven from Naples to Bordeaux plus a ticket to Naples and spending money. What Bourvil doesn't know, of course, is that the car is bristling with gold, heroin and diamonds and how unwittingly he gets rid of these en route is half the fun. Perhaps a tad dated forty years on but still one of the best 'feelgoods' around.

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.