Jaloux comme un tigre (1964)
09 Oct 1964 • Comedy • 1h 26m
Saw this on a poor quality ultra low-res YouTube version 9/15/15. I patiently sat through barely watchable electron soup for eighty minutes as M. Cowl and his colleagues, some very distinguished (Michel Serrault, for example), obviously try to be funny and just as obviously do not succeed.The movie consists of a series of bits involving a man who believes his wife is unfaithful and who tries to do something about it. The cast takes numerous uncomedic stabs at making silly faces, standing on their heads, running around. Perhaps more undercranking in places would have helped. Benny Hill did this sort of thing so much better and consistently so.There is something about comedy of the going-for-laughs variety that results in failure if the actors seem to be working for those laughs. To me this was sometimes a problem with Jerry Lewis or the Ritz Brothers. Darry Cowl and the cast here try way too hard to be funny. The result is, well, trying.Then there is the music. The hoped-for riotous farce presented by Cowl and Co. arrives on screen with underlining provided by one of the more irritating music tracks in the long history of bad movie music, consisting of a poorly recorded Hammond (or similar) organ playing little "funny" riffs. The effect was similar to watching a Jack LaLanne home exercise television show from the 50's...except LaLanne's exercise music was more competently composed and appropriate.Did the title in any way justify the content of the movie? Let's just say "Jaloux Comme un Tigre" is not exactly up to Bunuel's "El!" (1951). Even the film's wafer-thin premise gets in the way of its mindless procession of disconnected segments, consisting of a tennis match, a soiree allowing Cowl to don a number of "funny" disguises, and an unhilarious session at a deliberately mislabeled photography studio, to name but a few.I wish I could offer further details on the story, but after eighteen hours it has been a heavy lift remembering just those leaden vignettes.The only other thing I remember is not having laughed at anything in this movie.
Director
Writer
Starring
Language:
French
Awards:
Country:
France
Metacritic Score:
DVD Release Date:
Box Office Total: