I didn't knew anything about the director René Delacroix until I saw that brilliant vaudeville. Delacroix directed only ten movies, two being positively reviewed by a true connoisseur in french cinema. I was pleasantly surprised by "Le Tombeur", a speedy vaudeville with a lot of speedy gags and dialogues. The casting is excellent, Jacques Jouanneau in a difficult character of a rich man loving two young women living in the same flat and marrying them at the same time, helped by his servant Raymond Bussières, excellent as always (but can he be bad?).
Add a Review
-
happytrigger-64-3905177 October 2017
-
ulicknormanowen14 February 2021Paul Vandenberghe wrote the dialog ,so I decided to have a look at "le tombeur" ; this writer was responsible for Berthomieu's "Gringalet" based on his own play and in which he played the lead.A pleasant bittersweet comedy which also featured Charles Vanel.
Unfortunately "le tombeur" is based on a novel he did not write and his dialog is not up to scratch ,by a long shot ;this story of a heir of a refinery owned by his fond of sports auntie who demands he be married to inherit the factory is never funny,let alone witty.Not really handsome, and self-conscious , the hero -Jacques Jouanneau is better on stage- ends up with two fiancées .And that's it.
The story is dull, repetitive and derivative; the good gags are few and far between (the car which seems driven by nobody; the butler masquerading as the old dying aunt) ; Raymond Bussières saves something from the wreckage ,but wasting ninety-minutes for this heavy-handed farce is too much.