The Troops of St. Tropez (1964)

The ambitious police officer Cruchot is transferred to St. Tropez. He's struggling with persistent nude swimmers, but even more with his teenage daughter, who's trying to impress her rich friends by telling them her father was a millionaire and owned a yacht in the harbor.

This film was such a pleasant surprise. I knew nothing going into it, was not familiar with the actors or anyone involved. Heck, I did not even know it was a comedy or what kind of comedy it was. And it hit me hard with laughs, definitely one of the finest French comedies ever made.

By far the funniest part is the chasing of the nude swimmers. Somehow they manage to do it without it being obscene, just silly and quite humorous. If nothing else, the film is worth seeing for that sequence.

Fmovies: THE TROOPS OF ST. TROPEZ is a hilarious comedy, which brings an abundance of a cheap humor and fast fun. This is a somewhat satirical look at some serious social issues that rotate continuously in the story. That is, from the beginning, very frivolous.

Ludovic Cruchot, a gendarme is the embodiment of the law in a small French village. He has been re-assigned to the seaside commune of Saint-Tropez under the orders of command sergeant major Gerber. His beautiful and rebellious daughter goes with him. The gendarmes have a serious problem: a group of persistent nudists. However, Cruchot has an "ingenious" plan. Meanwhile, his daughter comes in contact with a gang of thieves...

This is a very pleasant and short amusement, regardless of the whole range of unpleasant coincidence. The scenery is is a big hit, because it distracts attention from a distorted perspective on society. There is no place for a parody, this is a comic charade with unclear directions. Mr. Girauld has managed to shuffle all the elements, such as family, crime, religion, youthful rebellious spirit and incompetent guardians of law and order.

Louis de Funès as Ludovic Cruchot has, given to his movements, noises, grimaces and gestures, completely stole the show. He has an aesthetic sense of humor, which is accompanied with his enormous energy. Well, Cruchot somewhat reminiscent on well known inspector Clouseau. Geneviève Grad as Nicole Cruchot is a beautiful girl from a province who comes into a tourist paradise. She has two problems: her youthful rebellious nature and a strict father, who happens to be a hyperactive gendarme. Michel Galabru as warrant officer Jérôme Gerber is preparing for the madness, at least for now.

The films about gendarmes from a hot French coast are, like many other things, a part of my childhood.

Said differently, this is the film that launched the career of Louis de Funès in 1964. He was no newcomer and had already twenty years of experience collecting small roles on the screen and bigger ones on the stage, but fate was only waiting for the last scraps of hair to disappear on the top of his head so he could get on the top of the box office for almost two decades.

The movie would also span a series of sequels and become the most emblematic role of his career. See, there are many elements of history movie buffs will enjoy in this film so I'm afraid it doesn't leave much to say about the film itself, but the elements of context are vital because they help to understand the reasons begind one of the most successful careers of French cinema.

We are in the middle of the 60's, at the culmination of what they call the "Glorious Thirties", France has become a major international political player, intoxicated by the aura of General De Gaulle, the Algerian war is over, and the first baby boom generation is coming to age and can enjoy their first great summer holidays. But as far as summer was concerned, there was one place to be, and it was Saint Tropez. You don't know how big Saint Tropez was in the 60's? Are you kidding?

The place's story is almost as legendary as Las Vegas, it was a remote beach station in the Mediterranean South that became cherished by the New Wave stars, one of its most memorable ambassadors was the loveliest mermaid: Brigitte Bardot. One running gag in the 1972 comedy "The Annuity" is that the film starts so early in time the name "Saint Tropez" never rings a bell and this is where the poor schmuck bought a little house at a cheap price. To end on the trivia, the dubbing in "The Sword in the Stone" had "Bermuda" replaced by "Saint Tropez".

So the town was the Mecca of fun, vacation and amusement, and when a screenwriter came to a real St Tropez gendarme station after his camera was stolen, he was told to come after nap time, a joke worthy of an Astérix album that convinced him to make fun of them in his next project. The premise was in line with the city's popularity, all they needed was an actor. De Funes had made a few successes in 1963, the most notable one was "Pouic Pouic" but producers were rather reluctant, they only hired him in exchange of several cuts in the budget and hiring second-rate actors.

Michel Galabru would eavesdrop a conversation revealing that they were looking for such a cast and a few time later, he got the offer. His career was launched as well. And so was the team made, with Louis de Funès as iconic Ludovic Cruchot and Galabru as Adjutant Gerber. The masterstroke of the script, where De Funès was involved, was to make Galabru the superior.

So there's a very interesting opening in the Alps region where we see Cruchot operating with some cattle thief and then getting a letter of promotion. The opening is full of comical moments but it's the choice of monochrome shooting that creates the exhilarating feeling when it jumps to color and to the catchy music of "Do You Saint Tropez", so typical of French youth passion for American music.

This transition is literally De Funès career in microcosm, from the black and white little roles to the thundering and joyful sixties. And his arrival at Saint Tropez with his daughter Nicole (Genevieve Gard, who sings the song) is actually one of the most pivotal moment of com

The Troops of St. Tropez fmovies. When I was a kid, local television mercilessly reprized "Le gendarme de Saint-Tropez". I saw all six films countless times and enjoyed them every time. Over time, I completely forgot about them, until recently, when without special reason they came to my mind and I simply had to see them again as soon as possible. I just finished the first film from 1964 and, risking to sound stupid, I'm so happy. It brought me back to childhood and cheered me up with its casual and cultured humor, without going over the top and vulgarity typical of modern comedy. The story is intelligent and witty, humor natural and cheerful, picture of Louis de Funes should be put in a dictionary next to the word "fun", and scenes of nudists hunt, as well as tracks "La Marche des Gendarmes" and "Douliou Douliou Saint-Tropez", remain forever etched in memory, and it is enough only to remember them to make you smile. If you didn't see this... or better, if you do not know this movie by heart, you have no idea how much you miss.

<3/10

Of all the genres, comedy is the one which gets more easily dated. That's because the conventions for each moment in time (and for each culture) are very volatile, they change quickly. And, for some reason, we don't "pile" new notions over old ones, which is to say, with humor, once we have new conventions, we reject old ones (unlike, for instance, the detective film). This means that what makes people laugh now, won't work in a very short time. I'm still young, and i've seen that happen, with films i saw as a teen. But than we have another aspect to be reckoned: the fact that, though audiences adapt to new conventions regardless of their age (as long as they keep seeing new films and live active social lives), they still gain a cinematic memory. So, many times, people "know" that they will re-watch a film which "is" funny, they remember they laughed out loud when they saw it the first time.

I saw this film with my mother, and i registered this effect on her. To me, this was something i had seen 10 years ago, to her, it was a memory from childhood, when these gendarme films were fresh.

Now they aren't fresh. Social criticisms here are totally out of date for European societies, even for the Portuguese!, so that's a card out of the deck.

The kind of gimmick Funés uses are also no longer so watchable. Physical acting has evolved to play with the body as an object (Jim Carey type) more than with the placing of the characters in a funny situation, like here (Chaplin made both things).

I do sympathize with his unlikable character. The witty policeman, despicable, over-protective about his girl (that's social commentary as well), caring for appearances. It's a matter of attitude, and Louis de Funés was a valuable performer.

One thing is remarkable about this film and its context: St.Tropez. What is remarkable, besides beautiful beaches, and pleasant lifestyle, is how cinema was an important, even fundamental, piece of the publicity machinery the french created to promote the place. It starts with 'Et dieu crea la femme', and it goes through a number of other films, including this one. Here we even have a song about the village, obviously made to promote both the film and the place. So here (as with 'and god...') we have the key elements that were important to highlight: beach, sand, summer-mood, boats, high life, open-minded relaxed living youth, attractive girls. The story exists to show off these elements. Well, you go today to St Tropez and compare it to what we have here in this film (and specially in 'and god..') and you have to admit they were successful in their campaign.

My opinion: 3/5 http://www.7eyes.wordpress.com

The first "Pink Panther" movie, directed by Blake Edwards, with Peter Sellers in the main role, came out in 1963. As practically everybody knows, it was a wonderful spoof of the French police as seen through British eyes. Although the exact relationships between the Pink Panther movies on the one side and the totally 6 "Le Gendarme De Saint-Tropez"-movies, directed by Jean Girault, has, as far as I know, never been revealed or scrutinized, the latter ones, starting in 1964, can surely be seen as an answer to make fun of the French provincial police by some people from Paris.

A short comparison between Sellers (who has been considered widely as the best comedian of all times) and De Funes (who never got really famous in the US despite the release of such movies like "Rabbi Jacob" and the VHS release of "La Grande Vadrouille"), De Funes' comic is devastatingly different from the one of Sellers. De Funes, who was a trained pantomimic, used this special capacity of his in most of his films, his being-a-comedian has elements of vaudeville - yet not in the sense of the Marx brothers, of slapstick - yet not in the sense of the early American silent movies, - of horseplay, yet without striving tastelessness or primitiveness. However, his comic is never intellectual, Funes could never have played Dr. Strangelove - as Seller could never have been Balduin or Oskar.

Nevertheless, the characters of Cruchot and Cluseau are closer than one would expect, yet still radically different in their basics. While Clouzeau never seems to be ridiculous when he hunts criminals, Cruchot does, because he is more interested in chicken-stealing than in felonies. How Cruchot treats his caught thieves, reveals that he is not to much different from them. On the other side, Clouseau is different from everybody, he would be too clumsy to associate with his "victims". Clouzeau is much more the French guy as he is seen by foreigners than Cruchot: Quiet, with a tendency to be elegant, womanizing, polite. But now quite the opposite is Cruchot: He walks around with his uniform even at home, he is loud, rude, slaps and hits and beats his "subservients", has mostly a daughter (in later "Gendarm"-sequels a wife), but does not come in flirting contact with any other women. He uses politeness and respect strictly to get to his purpose - as he uses otherwise rudeness and disrespect. However, both Cluseau and Cruchot are behaving strictly against police rules, but in their "anticyclic" behavior they reach the goal where probably everyone else would fail.

Louis De Funes has often being criticized for having played the allegedly primitive, but funny "Gendarm"-movies, after having been for decades a revered, but outside of France completely unnoticed stage actor. It is true that especially his work that he did with Gerard Oury belongs probably to the best that French comedy of the 60ies and 70ies had to offer, but without the "Gendarm"-movies he possibly would never have reached his enormous popularity. It is time that these 6 movies are edited for the international audience, too.