Le grand bluff (1957) User Reviews (3)

Not (much) oil in France,but plenty of ideas.

[ulicknormanowen · 5/10 · 24 June 2021]

France produces 2% of its oil consumption .

The film 's wish is to prove that bluff is profitable ,when you gamble at the casino as well as when you 're in business. A crook who makes himself pass off for an American millionaire inspires people with confidence ,helped by the paparazzi ,eager for the latest scoop.

Although a con, Eddie favors the small savers -who can buy shares at a reasonable price- over the mighty companies and the selfish swindlers. One does not even know whether there's really oil in the heiress' concession though.

In spite of good ideas, the movie drags on, the lines -except for the very last one- need a good writer (Audiard would have made wonders in this situation ) , the action is pure routine (rumbles ,pretty chicks, kidnapping,chases ,oil shower ....);Eddie Constantine is a nice actor,with plenty of go,but a great comedy US style ,it isn't :it's Jerry Epstein's wish,but it's Billy Wilder's reality.

Spot young Jean-Pierre Marielle as a lawman.

An Entertaining Little Comedy of Errors

[zardoz-13 · 7/10 · 22 May 2023]

Writer & director Patrice Dally's "Le Grand Bluff" is a contrivance-driven comedy of errors about an indefatigable gambler, Eddie Morgan (Eddie Constantine of "Poison Ivy"), who loses his shirt more often than doubles his winnings. Even when he proves the house has cheated him, with a rigged pair of magnetized dice at a craps table, the villains rough him up, throw out without a dime, watch him grovel in the gutter! Nevertheless, our suave but sagacious protagonist has a way of rebounding after each setback. Arriving in France, our hero spreads rumors about his wealth and makes lavish promises about an oil well that he plans to finance through a Petroleum for the People campaign. Meaning, he solicits small-time stockholders en masse to fund the company rather than courting titans of wealth who would cheat him out of him out of his investment. Eddie Constantine came to fame via Lemmy Caution. However, he doesn't play a two-fisted slugger with a pistol in his fist like Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer, but a savvy gambler who rarely knows when to quit. Along the way, Eddie must contend with murderous thieves and corrupt titans. These unsavory adversaries will stoop to any chicanery to wrest an oil well from his possession. At one point, the villains endeavor to sabotage the drilling rig by setting a shed stacked high with dynamite afire. Resourceful Eddie thwarts their evil designs like a true hero! Braving certain death, he commandeers a bulldozer and uses it to into push the building wreathed as it is with flames a safe distance away from the drilling platform. Only by the skin of his teeth does he manage to keep from being blown to bits by the inevitable explosion that erupts the moment he gets in the clear. Dally keeps the action moving at brisk pace throughout its 94-minute runtime. This dubbed black & white epic is pretty sanitary in terms of profanity and nudity. Eddie Constantine afficionados should enjoy this lively little thriller.

A film not to be missed!

[RodrigAndrisan · 10/10 · 29 April 2023]

A delicious film with the one and only, the incomparable, Eddie Constantine. Exceptional actor, peerless comic, "James Bond" before James Bond thanks to the character Lemmy Caution, in this film he plays an absolutely hilarious role. Super funny the scene with the young ballerina who comes with her mother to the hotel and Eddie F. Morgan (the character played by Eddie Constantine) promises them that he will buy the Paris Opera and the Louvre Museum. Super funny sequence of scenes with the women with a dog each, who Eddie thinks are rich and who turn out not to be. Dominique Wilms, who also played with Eddie Constantine in "Gun Moll" Original title: La môme vert de gris (1953) and in "Les femmes s'en balancent" (1954), she is beautiful and talented in the role of Dominique Arden. Talented and beautiful also Mireille Granelli in the role of Françoise de Beaulieu.