The Gendarme Gets Married

The third film in Louis de Funès's series about the gendarmes of Saint-Tropez. This time Sergeant Cruchot falls in love: Josepha is the widowed daughter of a gendarmerie colonel, and she comes from inside the military order herself. The decision to marry upsets his balance at home and at the station alike; his daughter Nicole is against it and the men in his unit struggle with the new arrangement. The comedy of the series lives in de Funès's body: the shouting, the working of his face, the sudden accelerations and stops, the ridiculousness of a man imitating authority. It is built on movement rather than dialogue. Behind it is Saint-Tropez as it was in the 1960s: beaches, tourists, open cars, and France's cheerful image of itself at the time. Jean Girault directed, with Michel Galabru and Jean Lefebvre in the cast. Familiar pleasure for anyone who knows the series and likes classical French comedy. For a newcomer it is better to start with the first film, and the treatment of the women and some of the jokes are badly dated.