UN MARTIEN A PARIS (1961)
aka A Martian in Paris
Article 3712 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-28-2011
Posting Date: 10-13-2011
Directed by Jean-Daniel Daninos
Featuring Darry Cowl, Nicole Mirel, Henri Vilbert
Country: France
What it is: Science fiction comedy

A Martian is sent to Earth to research the disease known as love, but becomes infected himself.

Here’s another one rescued from my “Ones that got away” list thanks to the fact that it got an official release on DVD in France. Unfortunately, that means the movie has no English dubbing or subtitles, and given the above premise, I wasn’t really surprised that most of the comedy was verbal rather than visual. There’s a handful of sight gags, my favorite of which is a little bit where the lead actor does a bit of synchronized “looking” with a viewer on a spaceship. One of the sources I have dismisses the movie and says that Darry Cowl is doing a Jerry Lewis imitation, but I certainly didn’t get a sense of that happening at all; Jerry Lewis’s comedy would have been far more strident and visual. Because of the language barrier, I really have to reserve any judgment on this one.