languedoc-586-836028 This is an extremely uneven entry from the Gendarmes series, featuring Michel Galabru at a definitive peak (for the series) but De Funès alternating between brilliance and actual boredom (like what his character goes through at first in the film). Maybe this weariness my wife and I detected in his performance here was a foreboding of some of his health issues which will, a few years later, make him stop shooting physical comedy altogether, and will finally take his life so prematurely.His faithful partner Claude Gensac wrote in her autobiography that De Funès' humour was a logical one. His characters were behaving logically even in their over-the-top reactions. But here when he goes nuts over being pampered and looked after all the time by his rich wife's staff, he insists upon dirtying the car on purpose in order to have a chance to wash it by himself and thus splashes paint all over it… only to empty in the process another bucket of paint on top of his own head… You would never have seen a gag like this in a classic Gendarmes such as "Le gendarme de St. Tropez" or "Le gendarme se marie", because it does not make sense! That the priest enters into a grimace contest with De Funès in plain view before his wife – however funny some of those face exchanges can be – doesn't make any sense either and is gratuitous! There is also mediocre acting on the part, for instance, of the butler, which doesn't help some of those poorly written, ill-warranted or directed scenes…But when the Gendarmes don their uniforms under the orders of the hilariously perfect (i.e. constantly serious, grave and solemn) adjutant Gerber, we are OK gain, and the situations can get really funny, like the talking whistle bit which another reviewer has described so well!

ma-cortes This is a very entertaining outing about Marechal Ludovic Cruchot(Louis De Funes) along with his gendarmes group(Michael Galabru,Jean Lefebre,Guy Grosso,Michael Modo) are prematurely retired. Six months later,Cruchot retires into mansion her rich wife(Claude Gensac) where lives a boring life. But comes his pal Marechal(Michael Galabru) remembering old times. Cruchot has a museum of records and both remember their nostalgics adventures in the Gendarmerie Nationale, as they memorize images from'Gendarmes in N.Y, ' Gendarme get married' and 'Gendarme at St Tropez' when Lucien(Jean Lefebre) is obligated to nude himself for chasing nudists . When Lucien is interned in a clinic caused by lost memory, the group is reunited and then they go into action and impersonate again as gendarmes . The gendarmes outfit undergo several adventures,moving in disguise, dressing as hippies, smoking marijuana, and terminating into a hippie commune where everybody say: I love you.This time gendarmes aren't struggling with persistent nude swimmers but they protect them from parachuted gendarmes.Meantime they're pursued by real gendarmes and hid under a sheep flock. Besides the nuns who appeared previous episodes ask their help but five children have disappeared. Then the gendarmes wind up pursued by an atomic rocket.This enjoyable French comedy upon the likable gendarmes packs crazy humor,lively situations amusement and too much fun. Louis De Funes, as always, stooges, grimaces and intense mocking faces . Highlights are the mimic gesticulation with a priest, and the conversation via whistle during a traffic jam. Again Claude Gensac,as Ludovic's spouse, she collaborated with Funes in numerous films, often playing his character's wife. Luminous local photography under St. Tropez's blue sky . Lively music score by Raymond Lefebre , includes the usual leitmotif , musical background in habitual ending parade.The picture is professionally directed and ingeniously written by customary director, Jean Girault.Another movies about Cruchot series are : ¨Gendarme of Saiz Tropez, Gendarme Get married, Gendarme and creatures of outer space and Gendarme and the Gendarmettes¨ , the last acting of the great Louis De Funes, an authentic farceur.

dalek69 i totally agree with the first review! This film is "wet yourself" laugh out loud funny, funny, funny!!!! it is definitely hilarious. At the start of the film, De Funès is very convincing as the bored rich man who longs for his former job, as he is not allowed to do anything strenuous, but WANTS to! (spoiler: he is lifted on to a horse with a forklift, fishes are put on his hook in the pond by a diver!). then, when he gets together with his old gendarme-mates, who are also bored without their old job, the film really starts to get hilarious. his usual manic gesturing and shouting is very funny, the scene where they all manage a traffic congestion in their old uniforms as "gendarmes" again, is brilliant ("we got to aggravate a minister"!!!), they end up in a hippie-car and in a hippie community smoking pot (very funny!), there is mad, hilarious fast (speeded up film) driving with lots of people crammed in and sticking out of cars, including a scene with the mad,"wild" nun, now two of them!, who also drive like mad, which is a brilliant bit in (almost?) every gendarme-film. toward the end portion of the film it all gets quite silly, real farce, but all very amusing, laugh out loud. the nudist-gag from film one is also "recycled", with a twist!all in all, a hilarious film, one of the best,maybe THE best, gendarme-films with Louis de Funès, together with part 3 of this series. must-see for comedy/slapstick/farce-fans and the humor is timeless. thumbs up!!!!

haquenin and one of De Funes' funniest ever. The fourth movie in the Gendarme series, this story finds the boys in forced retirement from the cushy police job at St. Tropez because they've become too old. When the Adjutant (Galabru) comes to visit De Funes to reminisce about old times, they discover that one of their old group (Fougasse) has had a head injury, has amnesia and is in an institution. They decide to get the old gang back and save him. But to save him, they decide to kidnap him and don their old Gendarme uniforms so they can bring back his memory of who he is. That's where the fun starts, because soon they are pursued by real Gendarmes for impersonating false Gendarmes. It's silly fun but very funny, thanks to brilliant performances by De Funes and Galabru.Throughout the film, there are too many funny moments with De Funes to mention. In the early scenes, I died laughing when De Funes, now a rich man for having married into wealth, punches out his maid repeatedly in the face. De Funes' outlandish comedic rages have often been compared to the manic temper of Donald Duck. In another scene, De Funes is at his absolute best when mumbling incredible gibberish when he and his false Gendarmes get stoned on marijuana in a hippie commune, where they are forced to hide from the real Gendarmes pursuing them. But one of the very best scenes of De Funes in any movie is when the false Gendarmes arrive upon a traffic accident and can't help themselves; they must don their old uniforms and become cops again if only for a few moments. In this scene, De Funes uses a police whistle to clear the accident from the road and, from the sounds he makes, you can actually understand what words in cop language his cadence implies. It's unforgettable. The man was a genius and there will never be another.