The Sheep Has Five Legs

A town in Provence had made its name on the quintuplets born there forty years ago. The mayor wants to celebrate their fortieth birthday with a great ceremony and put the town back in the news. But the quintuplets scattered years ago and are not on terms with their father either. One is a beautician in Paris, one a journalist, one a priest, one a doctor and one a window cleaner. All of them have to be found. The whole idea of the film is this: Fernandel plays all six parts. The five brothers and their father are the same actor. Each section is a separate story and Fernandel builds a different temperament every time, doing it not with makeup but with the way he stands and speaks. Henri Verneuil directed. The film was among the most watched in France that year and is counted one of Fernandel's most cited works. Some of the sections are comedy and some are not at all.