The Troops and Aliens (1979)

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

Fmovies: Actually all the films Louis de Funés participated are great. Especially the gendarme films. I watched this one last week an I am rather impressed. He and his partners played convincingly once again. It always makes lots of fun to watch them, particularly if Ludovic drives through the picturesque landscape of Saint Tropez.

Saint Tropez is like a dream. But not for the gendarms. This time an UFO is sighted by one of the gendarms. However, nobody believes him. Until Ludovic himself sees the UFO landing - and flying away at once. But nobody believes him as well. And then the first aliens come to Saint Tropez...

Well, the film is even a little creepy and eerie as I think. Perhaps I would have expected another end; the film ended a little sudden. But that's a matter of taste.

Probably tired of unsuccessful invasions and infiltrations of Earth via the United States, our good old aliens (aboard their not-so-unidentifiable flying saucers) think they'll have a better shot with Saint Tropez; they just didn't count on our valiant defenders of bikini-clad widows and playing-with-sand orphans; the Extra-terrestrials are coming and the Troop is back!

Still, the decade it took for that fifth installment to be released feels like a real change of era that affected all the cast... and not just in the looks department. In 1979, the baby-boomers who twisted in Saint-Tropez were adults whose preoccupation were rooted in reality and oil prices, so I'm not sure watching a frail old Funès dressed as a nun and making faces not to be recognized was the proper cure for laughs. That 'Salve Regina' sounds rather like the swan song of the agonizing old school of French comedy.

But courageously, director Jean Girault and screenwriter Jacques Wilfrid stick to their guns, and all the actors are certainly more heroic than their fictional counterparts in the way they indulge to the same shticks over and over without fearing to look ridicule. But there are signs that can't fool us, the most visible ones are the replacements of Christian Marin and Jean Lefebvre by similarly looking substitutes Maurice Risch (short but chubbier) and Jean-Pierre Rambal (tall but less goofy). It's quite symbolic that Merlot and Fougasse were the two who welcomed Cruchot at his arrival and quite sad that "no one notices" their absence.

To their defense, they don't hurt the film and Maurice Risch, a regular De Funès' partner who's been labeled as a poor man's "Jacques Villeret" given the obvious resemblance, dis fit to the role. The real issue is with the replacement of Claude Gensac as Cruchot's wife by Maria Mauban. Gensac was unavailable so Mauban did her best with a second-rate script that overloads de Funès' dialogues with many "my doe" (ma biche!) in case we forgot who she was.

So "The Troops and the Extra-Terrestrials" has many new faces and the "old" ones have aged too much, aging even contaminated the writing because it's dated even by the 70s standards. In other words, the first act was a disaster starting with Beaupied (Risch) discovering a flying saucer and going all bananas about it. Granted there is no De Funès movie without a fair deal of hysteria, here the joke is used ad nauseam, with media-circus, brand-dropping, neologisms and verbalisms so embarrassing you just wish the plot can move to somewhere else.

I tried to watch it with the benevolence of a parent who sees his child and knows a Laurence Olivier he'll never be, but seeing all these talented actors clowning around and trying to make us believe that stabbing someone's butt by mistake is funny... with the summit of bad taste in that shot on the Colonel's bleeding pants. The craze goes on and then it starts to loosen up and even gets better near the middle. I often criticized some De Funès' movies to start very well and then getting slower or rushed out at the end, this is the opposite case, and I only wish the warm-up wasn't so long because it could have redeemed the film.

Which takes me back to that summer of 1989 where as a kid, I discovered De Funès through a TV cycle dedicated to the Troops series. If my memories don't fail me, it was one of the first I saw and I didn't take it as a comedy

The Troops and Aliens fmovies. Botcher Cruchot encounters himself attempting to save people of Saint Tropez from an outer space invasion carried out by humanoid aliens . As always , there appears customary gendarmes partners , Marechals (Michael Modo, Maurice Risch, Jean Pierre Rambal, Guy Grosso) , chief adjutant Jerome (Michael Galabru) , but this time isn't the sympathetic Jean Lefevre . When they aware an outer space saucer the Gendarmerie Nationale is revolutionized , Ludovic Cruchot (Louis De Funes) goes into in action , and he's secretly moving in disguise , dressing as a nun . The only way to discover the Extra-Terrestres from real human is which they feel deep thirst and take compulsively oil drinks ; furthermore they sound like empty metallic cans when they punch them . Then , the highlights happen as when the aliens impersonate as gendarmes and the events go wrong .

This is an amusing story and pretty entertaining farce with the master comic Luis De Funes . Lively situations full of slapstick , slapdash and too much fun . The pic contains a light criticism to French police called Nationale Gendarmerie . Louis De Funes undertakes several adventures , overacting , as always , as he puts intense mocking faces , grimaces , tongue twister and lots of mimic gesticulation . Claude Gensac , as ordinary Ludovic Cruchot's spouse, she collaborated five films as wife , however this time doesn't appear , being substituted by Maria Mauban . Fine local photography with luminous sun under St. Tropez's blue sky . Lively and catching musical score by Raymond Lefevre includes usual leitmotif with musical background on habitual ending parade where the gendarmes are replaced by false aliens . However , it packs cheesy and ridiculous special effects referring the flying saucer . The movie is ingeniously written and directed by regular director series , Jean Girault . If you like Funes' nutty acting, you'll like this one.

Other movies about our intimate gendarmes are the following : ¨Gendarme of St. Tropez¨ , ¨Gendarme get married¨ , ¨Gendarme at New York¨ , ¨Gendarme takes off¨ and the last acting of the great Louis De Funes , an authentic Farceur: ¨Gendarme and the Gendarmettes¨.

This comedy is full of background jokes which you don't spot the first time round, (or even 3rd time). Funes is brilliant. We saw this several times on a rainy holiday! My kids loved it.

The plot meanders a bit. Comedy without gross-out, those were the days!!

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.