NE LE CRIEZ PAS SUR LES TOITS (1943)
Article 4544 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 5-26-2014
Directed by Jacques Daniel-Norman
Featuring Fernandel, Robert Le Vigan, Meg Lemonnier
Country: France
What it is: Comedy

A professor who developed a formula to transform seawater into gasoline dies, and various parties seek out the professor’s assistant under the belief that he knows the formula as well. Unfortunately, the only formula known by the assistant involves making flowers imperishable. Misunderstandings ensue.

This is a movie I managed to rescue from my “ones that got away” list; once I posted it there, it was made available to me. When posting it there, I couldn’t help but feel the plot was very familiar, and it turns out that the movie was remade in Mexico under the title EL SUPERSABIO, which I’ve already covered. That movie was in Spanish without English subtitles; this one is in French without English subtitles. Also, like its remake, the story is much heavier on dialogue than on visual details, making it quite impossible to make any real judgment call on the movie. I will admit that Fernandel has a very interesting face, but beyond that, I don’t have anything else I can really evaluate about the movie.