Les Morfalous
| 1984
Comedy / Action / War |
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Credits Director: Henri VerneuilScript: Michel Audiard and Henri Verneuil, d’après le roman de Pierre Siniac Photo: Edmond Séchan Music: Georges Delerue Cast: Jean-Paul Belmondo (le sergent Pierre Augagneur), Jacques Villeret (Béral), Michel Constantin (l’adjudant Édouard Mahuzard), Marie Laforêt (Hélène), Michel Creton (Boissier), Matthias Habich (Karl), François Perrot (François Laroche-Fréon, le directeur de la banque), Maurice Auzel (Borzik) Runtime: 95 min Aka: The Vultures Summary In 1943, during the Second World War, a battalion of the
French Foreign Legion is tasked with the mission of removing a fortune
in gold bullion from the vault of a bank in a North African town,
before it falls into the hands of the Germany army. The
Legionnaires arrives just in time to be all but wiped out by the German
soldiers who surround the town. Only three of them survive:
Sergeant Augagneur, Adjutant Mahuzard and Boissier. With the help
of a cowardly artillery man, Béral, the Legionnaires manage to
defeat the Germans, but instead of fulfilling their mission as planned,
Augagneur has other plans for the gold bullion…
Review Les Morfalous marks
the end of a twenty-five year
association between two pre-eminent figures in French cinema from the
1960s – director Henri Verneuil and actor Jean-Paul Belmondo. It
was their eighth collaboration, and yet another attempt at a
blockbuster in the unashamedly American style. Whilst the
film does have some good jokes (some however in very, very bad taste),
and the action stunts are impressive (albeit more Grand Guignol than
realistic), the script is weak and the grey-haired Belmondo not too
convincing as an action hero. The moral ambiguity of Belmondo’s
character is also unsatisfying and it is next to impossible to find
anything to like in his portrayal of a crude, self-serving
Legionnaire. Jacques Villeret and Michel Constantin come off far
better, both having sympathetic roles and a decent share of the best
jokes. Verneuil makes the best of the material he has at his
disposal and, whilst clearly not his best film, it does just about pass
for entertainment.© James Travers 2005 |
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