Film Review: The Troops of St. Tropez (Le Gendarme de Saint-Tropez, 1964)

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(source: tmdb.org)

When someone mentions French cinema in 1960s, the first thing that comes to mind is French New Wave. In terms of box office, the most successful French films at the time were comedies starring Louis De Funès. One of the first was The Troops of St. Tropez, 1964 film directed by Jean Girault which spawned a successful series of five more films.

De Funès in the film plays Ludovic Cruchot, member of National Gendarmerie tasked with enforcing law in small village in Department of Hautes-Alpes. His dedication pays off and he gets promotion to Master Sergeant and transfer to Department of Var, which includes small harbour town of St. Tropez. There he finds that his new subordinates got too accustomed to laid back lifestyle of the local citizens, so he decides to bring them back in shape. That pays off when, after series of humiliating failures, his men manage to catch and arrest group of nudists that were illegally using local beaches. Much bigger challenge for Cruchot is created by his rebellious daughter Nicole (played by Geneviève Grad) which wants to hang out with local “cool” youths and, in order to do so, invents the story that her father is rich businessman who owns one of yachts in the harbour. Unbeknownst to her, the yacht owner is actually a criminal who has stolen the valuable Rembrandt’s painting.

The film originated as the idea of co-writer Richard Balducci, based on some of his experiences in St. Tropez and its local gendarmes whom he found strangely disinterested for enforcing the law. Script, however, doesn’t put that much emphasis in conflict between uptight Cruchot and his laid back men. Instead, a lot of humour is based on the generational conflict between Nicole and her father, but this is exploited only in the second half of the film, following the brilliant segment in which Cruchot tries to outsmart the nudists. In that segment comedic abilities of De Funès are put to excellent use, especially in the scenes in which the circumstances forces Cruchot to take part in her daughter’s charade and assume various identities. Jean Girault directs film with great ease, using not only great acting talents, but also eye-pleasing locations of French Riviera. Important contribution is made by composer Raymond Lefebvre who wrote catchy song “Douilou Douilou Saint Tropez” as well as Gendarmes March, inspired by Colonel Bogey’s March from The Bridge at the River Kwai. Although some of the jokes related to early 1960s films and other aspects of popular culture look little dated and the villains are terribly one-dimensional, The Troops of St. Tropez is for the most part as entertaining as it was more than five and half decades ago and, as such, could be recommended to today’s audience.

RATING: 7/10 (++)

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