Les Tontons Flingueurs [Crooks in Clover] * (1963, Lino Ventura, Bernard Blier, Sabine Sinjen, Claude Rich) – Classic Movie Review 12,303

Director Georges Lautner’s 1963 French crime comedy film Les Tontons Flingueurs [Crooks in Clover] is exceptionally slack and lame, a waste of talent and a bit of a waste of time. The pathetic lowbrow slapstick comedy completely undermines what could have been a good gangster thriller. It is an adaptation of the Albert Simonin novel Grisbi or Not Grisbi, and it has a strong setup and plot, though after a while it loses the plot entirely. It also has some sparky lines and entertaining characters, all squandered.

It is the final installment in the Max le Menteur trilogy, preceded by the 1954 gangster classic Touchez Pas au Grisbi with Jean Gabin and the excellent 1961 crime thriller Le cave se rebiffe, also with Jean Gabin. The film trilogy is an adaptation of three novels by Albert Simonin.

Lino Ventura plays ex-gangster Fernand summons him to his deathbed of his childhood friend, Louis ‘The Mexican’ (Jacques Dumesnil), boss of a Paris gangster mob. Louis appoints Fernand head of his business and guardian of his fun-loving teenage daughter Patricia (Sabine Sinjen). Fernand moves into the Mexican’s suburban mansion, where he is welcomed by mob lawyer Maître Folace, Jean the butler and Patricia. The mob business has a bowling alley, a brothel run by Madame Mado, a gambling den run by the brothers Raoul and Paul Volfoni, and a distillery run by Théo. Both the Volfonis and Théo plan to get rid of Fernand.

It may have been popular in 1963, but it is fairly terrible, with Ventura hard pressed to keep control of it. Great screen actor though he is, nevertheless he is no comedian, and he is asked to do some silly things that are way out of his range to perform, let alone make funny. Gangster comedies are not a good idea anyway. Mixing killing and gangster business with silly laughs is unprofitable and in bad taste.

Okay, that could work with black comedy, The Ladykillers for example, and there are slapstick exceptions to prove the rule, Analyze This for example. But you need a lot of sophisticated wit and cleverness to pull it off, and the right tone. This film is tone deaf, like the Coens’ remake of The Ladykillers.

Among the main criminals here are Sabine Sinjen as the Mexican’s daughter Patricia, Claude Rich as Patricia’s boyfriend Antoine Delafoy, and Horst Frank as the distillery manager Théo, all three giving especially bad performances, though they are not entirely alone in that. Bernard Blier, a good, normally quite subtle actor, is stuffed trying to cope with his naff comedy role as the gambling manager Raoul Volfoni. It is all a bit sad really.

Weirdly and unfathomably, it is apparently now a French TV classic, with its lines and character names part of popular culture in France. It sold 250,000 DVDs on release in 2002.

Screenwriter Michel Audiard considered useless the scene set in a kitchen where the gangsters try to make conversation while drinking a vile strong liquor. It is truly terrible, and a lowspot in a lowly movie, but director Lautner included it, apparently in homage to the film noir Key Largo. Always a mistake accessing much better movies.

The cast are Lino Ventura as Fernand Naudin, Jacques Dumesnil as Louis ‘The Mexican’, Francis Blanche as lawyer Maître Folace, Bernard Blier as gambling manager Raoul Volfoni, Jean Lefebvre as his brother Paul Volfoni, Robert Dalban as the Mexican’s butler Jean, Venantino Venantini as the hitman Pascal, Horst Frank as the distillery manager Théo, Charles Régnier as distillery worker Tomate, Mac Ronay as gangster Bastien, Henri Cogan as gangster Freddy, Sabine Sinjen as the Mexican’s daughter Patricia, Claude Rich as Patricia’s boyfriend Antoine Delafoy, Pierre Bertin as Antoine’s father Adolphe Amédée Delafoy, Dominique Davray as brothel manager Madame Mado, Philippe Castelli as the tailor, and Paul Meurisse as a passer-by.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 12,303

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