Overrated and overhyped

Dreadfully Boring

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

a charming film, adaptation of a charming play. nothing surprising. except Jean Gabin. who is the same. and the spice who change the taste of a pure French story , predictable, nice but who has low chances to create memories about it. Gabin change everything. for his simple presence. with each gesture and word. with precise irony. and with the science to do everything in the best way. this is all. and the motif to see Monsieur twice . for its humor flavor. for the social duel. for the love story. and for the delicacy to present not real comfortable things. a seductive comedy. and good opportunity to discover a great actor genius.

because it is not a French comedy but a Gabin's film. because Philippe Noiret is adorable and Mireille Darc the same. because it has all the ingredients to be nice, seductive and little more than an easy film . because it represents the scene for Jean Gabin for remind a precise art who is not easy to ignore. a good director. an inspired cast without be the best but, with strong pillars, the result is far to be bad. a film about family , adventure and identities. and, sure, about Monsieur. the best part - the beginning. the end - useful for not ignore the memories about the lovely French comedies. a serious film despite the appearances. because it has charm and sensitivity and force of seduction. and that is all. see it !

At the time,Le Chanois was the New wavelet's favorite Bête Noire .One often forgets he began as a communist activist ("Le Temps Des Cerises") and gave a handful of excellent movies in the 1946-1952 era,the best of which remaining his wonderful" Ecole Buissonnière". A craftsman and a humanist at that ,his career is not as dismal as the N.V. clique claims.The sixties were his most mediocre period;he was wise enough to call it a day in 1966 (he died in 1985)."Monsieur" has some good moments ,particularly in Gabrielle Dorziat's scene asking Jean Lefevre for a dead body to make sure her son-in-law is dead and to latch onto his dough;Mireille Darc has spontaneity and charm going for her in her maid turned hooker turned maid again role ,which eventually ends up in a Cinderellaesque way .Gabin is Gabin but his part is weak :just compare to what Sacha Guitry did with Michel Simon in a similar subject in "La Vie D'Un Honnête Homme "(1952).Philippe Noiret is wasted and Liselotte Pulver gives a rather poor performance (to think that she was the heroine of Douglas Sirk's masterpiece " a time to love and a time to die" (1958)!)It was to be Gaby Morlay's last part (she died the same year) and she does seem the ghost of herself;One wishes she had left the screen on a high note,on the endearing "Fortunat" (1960)for instance.

Only one review? Let me add another, because the premise of a rich banker and a tart escaping their separate pasts to be butler and maid in a country house means that they can use their skills in the new job to comic effect but always risk exposure. The story is in fact not too well developed but that doesn't matter because the dialogue and acting are often fun.First, of course, we must place the immortal Jean Gabin who exercises his tremendous presence, dominating other characters by his intelligence and force of personality. When Suzanne as a whore warns him that her protectors are hard men, he merely says "But I am a banker" and outwits the dim thugs in no time. As butler, while cleaning the shoes he notes that the master uses the same bootmaker as the ex-King of Spain. Equal second to my mind come his frenetic employers, the two Bernardacs. He is the incomparable Philippe Noiret, trying to combine pompous businessman and father with passion for his new air hostess wife. She, the Swiss Liselotte Pulver, combines daytime adultery with evening drinking but always charmingly. The lovely Mireille Darc as the prostitute turned chambermaid Suzanne can only come fourth, because she is unfortunately given too little to do. Little contemporary touches recall a long gone era. In the girls' bedrooms pictures from magazines of contemporary pop stars are stuck up on the walls. And in Paris at that time to be chic one had to drive an English car, so we see posh Daimlers and Rovers, sporty Austin-Healeys and Jaguars, plus the ubiquitous Mini.