Charles Baill, a prisoner of war, is not particularly unhappy on the German farm where he has worked for three years, but he misses his wife and the nostalgia for his country is stronger than the friendship of the farmer’s wife… he decides. Key fields…
To avoid the failure of his comrades, Bailey imagines his way to freedom, in the form of a prison, with a cow on a cow… next to an animal called Margarita, which he willingly leaves for a farmer’s wife, Charles takes. in the direction of France and makes a long march, which should last three months…
The author of about twenty short films between 1947 and 1950, Henri Vernoil had a decisive meeting in the person of Fernandel, who agreed to participate in his first feature film, La Table aux crevés, in 1951. forbidden fruit, five-legged sheep, big chef…), of which the cow and the prisoner remain the most emblematic.
The authentic story was reported in a 1945 paper by author Maurice DeCobra. Blue parakeet, The cow and the prisoner It was an absolute triumph in the theaters, with more than 8.8 million viewers. A huge success at the French box office in 1959, the film also revived emotional and painful memories among viewers, albeit softened by the presence of Marguerite, barely fourteen years after the end of the war.
Three years earlier, La Traversée de Paris, a masterpiece by Claude Hautin-Larra, on the other hand, provoked lively debate and broke several taboos in the description of the occupation, with its black humor, representation of the black market and also. of collaborators/war profiteers.
It always is The cow and the prisoner It was the first big commercial success for Henri Verneuil, who had to sift through no less than 600 cows to find a rare pearl, the one who would “incarnate” Marguerite.
The poor creature, who actually traveled 200 km between Munich and Stuttgart with Fernandel during the film, was to end his days in the slaughterhouse at the end of filming, where Verneuil had to return him to his owner. But the filmmaker vigorously opposed the animal’s disastrous fate and found a meadow in Normandy for the bovine star, where he could peacefully end his days.
Source: Allocine

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