On February 25, 1964, the first of five feature films of the year was released, starring Louis de Funes! Blow up the bank is a detective comedy in which Victor Garnier (De Funès), a small merchant of hunting and fishing equipment, finds himself ruined after an unfortunate investment. With no money, the Garnier family decides to take revenge by robbing the bank of the man who advised them on this ill-fated financial investment: André Durand-Mareille (Jean-Pierre Mariele).
The film is directed by Jean Giraud, who recently made Puik-Puik, with de Funes, and the two men will next move to Gendarmes de Saint-Tropez. And exactly, the two actors who will become the two famous gendarmes will already appear in Blow up the bank with the future Master Sergeant Krusho.
1. Jean Lefebvre (Fugas)
Jean Lefebvre plays Fougas, the biggest whipping boy of the entire Saint-Tropez brigade. We find him in Break the bank as a site foreman who is approached by Victor Garnier to learn how to dig a tunnel without ruining everything.
This master, quite focused on the bottle, nevertheless gave good instructions to Garnier, who then carefully used them to excavate the underground path that connected his shop to the Durand-Marelle bank.
2. Guy Grosso (tricard)
Guy Grosso is one of the “historical” gendarmes in the sense that he always responded to the six films of the saga from 1964 to 1982. For example, Jean Lefebvre will not return after Le Gendarme en Promenade. That being said, the Trikarti singer only has a brief scene in Break the Bank and you better not close your eyes to see her!
Victor Garnier explores the floor of his shop with his son to find out what’s next for the tunnel, and then a customer walks in to make a purchase. What, we do not know, for he has scarcely had time to say hello when Garnier, surprised, suddenly turns round with a pocket harpoon in his hand, and the shot goes very close to the client indicated, evidently played by Grosso. He’s on the run, and he’s probably not going to set foot in that vendor again!
In addition to The Gendarme and Blow up the bank, in 1964, De Funès will also be on the poster for Fantômas, A funny guy and Dandelions with Georges Lautner. These five films met with very different successes, but one thing is certain: by the end of this year, de Funes had become a star of French comics.
Source: Allocine
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