Touches You

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

A colossal box office hit in France but largely unknown here in Britain, where it had a brief cinema release in 1968 before soon fading from memory despite the presence of Terry-Thomas. Top-billing goes to Bourvil, who is appealing in the larger but less showy part than that of co-star Louis de Funès, whose mere presence is enough to get you grinning in anticipation.Glossily shot in Eastmancolor on a variety of picturesque locations (including Paris) by the veteran cameraman Claude Renoir, the plush production and extraordinary running time of 132 minutes does get rather overwhelming when lavished upon some pretty basic slapstick; such as twice ruining SS officer Hans Meyer's nice smart uniform by covering him in muck. Much of the film is pitched at that level, with people hiding in wardrobes and going into the wrong hotel rooms, although the sequence where Bourvil and de Funès approach an unsuspecting stranger they've confused with Terry-Thomas in a Turkish bath by sidling up to him and giving him the eye while wearing only towels and whistling 'Tea for Two' enters the realm of the authentically bizarre.With over twenty years having passed since the Liberation, the film's makers by now felt able to treat the Germans as figures of fun rather than enmity, and even go to the trouble to let us know that the pilot accidentally shot down by a cross-eyed gunner on their own side parachutes to safety during the tremendous climax set on the border of the Free Zone in which all the visual treats that have come before are far surpassed by a stunning sequence depicting two bright red gliders hurtling off a sheer cliff against the backdrop of a breathtakingly beautiful mountainscape.

It's difficult to make a comedy about WWII (or any other wars as well) because if we can laugh, it must be not too loud. In that sense, the movie is among the best, because we indeed laugh a lot but the drama of the times is always in the background: My fellows were in the same time terrorized by the Germans occupying and courageous to help each other and ruin the Germans plans (for example, my grandmother hided a Jewish child in her Free-Zone village).The casting had a tremendous idea to look for English to play the RAF pilots and German to play the Wechmacht. Thus, our French clowns are more in the spotlight. Fufu is his typical Fufu (the scornful, cowardly middle-class person) and Bourvil is typical Bourvil (the big hearted, simple idiot). Some gags are really funny (the night at the hotel being the climax). The locations are large, from Paris to the free zone, but there are also dragging moments (nearly all the action scenes) that make me rate the movie under their other team-up "Le Corniaud".

Besides the great quality of the actors who portray the two main characters of the movie (Louis de Funés and Bourvil), its script is fantastic, fulfilled with brilliant moments of humor and non sense. Absolutely unmissable for the fans of this kind of movies. I don't remember how many times i've seen it already but i never grow tired of it! For those who think that french movies are not so mainstream, this is probably a pleasant surprise, along with other comedies like the fabulous "Les aventures de Rabbi Jacob" ("Rabbi Jacob") and "Le corniaud" ("The sucker"), both of which starring Louis de Funés and the latter also with Bourvil.

I have seen this film (dubbed into Russian) back in USSR (before 1989). In soviet Union, dubbing of foreign films was an art form of the highest professional level. It is a great comedy in the ranks of "It's a mad, mad, mad world"(USA) and "Brilliantovaya ruka"(Diamond Arm) (USSR). Bourvil, Louis de Funes and Terry Thomas are the three pillars of European comedy cinema of the 1960's. Here, I finally found out the tile in English and French, because translating from Russian "The Great Promenade" only garnered me blank stares. It's a great example of how a free people love to make fun of their conquerors. Unfortunately war is not often as much fun as this film.