The Nitwit

the Nitwit is a film free-italo-Spanish carried out by Gerard Oury, left in 1965.

Synopsis

Whereas he still traversed only a few tens of meters on the way of the Italy where it wished to spend his holidays, the 2 CV of Antoine Maréchal is dislocated when it is struck by the Bentley of Mr Saroyan, a so-called director of a house of import-export. Initially insincerely, Saroyan recognizes its wrongs and, like compensation, offers to Maréchal the voyage Paris - Naples in Caravelle then to convoy all paid expenses, until Bordeaux, from where it will be sent back to Miami, superb and immense a convertible Cadillac left over there by one of his/her American friends. Here are which promises formidable holidays for Maréchal, but it does not suspect that Saroyan is the godfather of a trade union of gangsters and that the “road steamer” is stuffed products for smuggling: “Chnouff” (Héroïne), invaluable stones (of which the “You koun-koun”, the largest diamond of the world), but, etc here thus soon on the roads of Italy, being unaware of its invaluable cargo very and not noticing the criminal who follows his “mule remotely” and day before on the goods coveted by a rival band…

Comment

The Corniaud is a road comic movie , an amusing voyage in Italy which leads the protagonists of Paris to Rome, Naples, Pisa, the Riviera and Carcassonne while passing by splendid sites like the Villa of Este, Château Saint-Angel and the Toscane. Far from the comedies “carried out with the economy”, the film entirely made in outside profits from exceptional enough conditions for a French comic film of this time: an important budget, the color, the direct sound and fifteen weeks of turning. Even if the two main actors have few common scenes, their employment is complementary: Bourvil plays the nitwit, the naive one moving who carries out an extraordinary tour innocently and plays the pretty heart, while De Funès incarnates the bad faith “assembled on spring” seeking to exploit its assistant, a coleric and feverish gang leader which sees all its dishonest persons plans crumbling way progressively.

Distribution

Bourvil : Antoine Maréchal, sales agent on vacation
Louis de Funès: Léopold Saroyan, “director of Import Export”
Venantino Venantini: Mickey, the gangster stammerer
Henri Genes: Martial, the gendarme of Carcassonne
Beba Loncar: Ursula, the naturist hitch-hiker
Saro Urzì: Tagliella, the Neapolitan mechanic
Alida Chelli: Gina, the manicurist
Nando Buzzanca: Nino, the hairdresser in love with Gina
Jack Ary: The customs officer-chief
Pierre Roussel: Mario Costa, the Master of hotel
German of France: The old woman who sings
Guy Grosso: A customs officer
Michel Modo: A customs officer
Jean Droze: A man of Saroyan
Jacques Tool bag: A man of Saroyan
Jean Meyer: An accomplice of Saroyan
Henri Virlojeux: An accomplice of Saroyan
Jacques Eyser: An accomplice of Saroyan
Jean-Marie Good: The mechanic of Rome
Guy Delorme: Luigi, a henchman of Mickey
Yvon Jeanclaude: A police officer
Robert Lerick: Spitz, a henchman of Mickey
Jean Minisini: An inspector
Robert Duranton: The “large hefty man” of the showers
Marius Gaidon: an agent of Bordeaux
Michele Morgan: appears in its own role, in the car, in a scene which was cut to the assembly
Eric Wasberg: An inspector
Louis Viret
Bernard Meunier
Nino Vingelli
Walter Chiari
Nicole Desailly
Danièla Rocca
daN Vadis

Data sheet

Title: The Nitwit
Realizer: Gerard Oury
Scenario: Gerard Oury
Adaptation: Gerard Oury, Marcel Jullian
Dialog: Andre Tabet and Georges Tabet
Assistants realizer: Serge Vallin, Giorgio Stegani, Gerard Guerin
Production: The Films Corona, Valoria Films (Paris) and To explore Film (Rome)
Directing of production: Yves Laplanche, Enzo Provenzale, Jacques Juranville and Vladimir Ivanov for the second team
Chief of production: Robert Dorfmann
Secretary of production: Francesco Ciarletta, Robert Giordani
Music: Georges Delerue (Editions Hydrangea)
Photography: Henri Decaë and Wladimir Ivanov and Alain Douarinou for the second team
Assembly: Albert Jurgenson, Laurence Leininger, Etiennette MUSE
Sound: Antoine Bonfanti
Costumes: Different Tanine
Decorations: Francesco Carletta and Robert Giordani
Script girl: Generic Lucile Costa
: Jean Fouchet
special Effects: Pierre Durin, Michel Durin, Claude Carliez, Gil Delamare
general Manager: Jean Pieuchot, Roberto Cocco, Gaëtano Amata
Film 35mm, Eastmancolor color, Franscope
Pulling: Franay laboratory - L.T.C Saint-Cloud
Agent of press: Richard Balducci
Italian Consultant: Stéfania Giani
Photographer of plate: Rodrigue
Turning from August 31st to December 7th, 1964 in Rome, Naples Carcassonne, Riviera, the villa of Este, Pisa, Tuscany, Paris
Lasted: 110 minutes
Coming out date: March 24th 1965 (France)
Kind: Comedy
Visa of exploitation: 29466

Quotations

Leopold Saroyan (De Funès) has just destroyed the 2 CV of Antoine Maréchal (Bourvil)

- It is not serious…

- It is not serious! You have the good ones! What will I become me?

- pedestrian Eh well…!

Always in connection with its completely destroyed car: (see " Around the film")

- Ah it will go much less better inevitably!

Leopold Saroyan (De Funès) on the telephone with the German hitch-hiker:

- Ich bin ein freund, a friend, ein freund off herr Antoine Maréchal! He STI in danger… Verstehen sy danger? If you nicht interveniren, Kaput Marshal!

- Das STI gar nicht möglich!

- That I cannot say to you! Because DER mann, DER fine young man, ach!! STI ein bastard, ein grosser bastard… which wants to splash… beg your forgiveness… volieren Cadillac… Here, thank you…

Around film

After the projection of the rushes the first two weeks of turning, De Funès finding that it was not present enough at the screen will strike “of the mask” during close 24 hours. Oury imagines then celebrates it scene of shower, where the actor compares his musculature with that of a “large hefty man”, the ex-all-in wrestler Robert Duranton. The idea is inspired to him by an astonishing meeting made at the time of a voyage in Italy.
the adventure of the Great Ramble starts… on the turning of the Corniaud where Gerard Oury tells with the two actors the scenario of film to come.
the 2CV was equipped with 250 electric bolts so that it is dislocated at the desired time. This scene, the last round on December 7th, 1964, was perhaps inspired in Oury by its cinematographic “meeting” with Bourvil on the turning of the Miroir to two faces . In this dramatic film of Andre Cayatte realized in 1958, Bourvil at the wheel of its 2CV is struck by Gerard Oury, actor but also Co-scenario writer of film, at the wheel of an American gross.
When Bourvil/Marshal known as it will go much less better, inevitably , just after the accident of the 2CV, one sees of Funès being turned over to laugh. This counterpart was not envisaged and this scene would have been rejouable with difficulty, which would have being the case so of Funès had not had the presence of mind to be turned over before laughing.
the scenario of the Nitwit takes as a starting point the mishap of a presenter of French television, Jacques Angelvin, which was stopped in the United States in 1962 at the wheel of a Buick coming from France and in which more than fifty kilograms of pure heroin had been dissimulated. During its arrest, the car did not contain any more drug and Angelvin protested initially its innocence while claiming to be deceived, in a way similar to the hero of the Corniaud . It was however proven that the car of the French had been well used to transport drug since Marseilles until the the United States and that it had touched ten thousand dollars for that. Pleading guilty at the time of his lawsuit, the presenter of Paris-Club was imprisoned during five years. This arrest is one of the episodes of the dismantling of the “French connection” which inspired films of the same name ( French Connection and French Connection 2 ).
the seal of Bourvil for this film is three times more important than that granted Funès.
the Cadillac led by Bourvil is a model ElDorado 1964.
n°1 with the Box-office in 1965: 11,74 million entries.
At the time of the Cannes festival 1965, Oury and its producer is seen proposing by American to carry out and produce a Remake with Dean Martin and Jack Lemmon. In spite of an important offer ( Budget doubled, wages paid in Swiss, promises of two other films in the five years. Enormous ), French will not take action pursuant.

Distinction

Price of the best scenario of the Festival of Moscow 1965.

See too

comic Duet

External bonds

the Nitwit on Internet Movie Database
the Nitwit

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