The Sheep Has Five Legs
The Law is the Law
-
The Sheep Has Five Legs (Le mouton à cinq pattes)
Directed by Henri Verneuil.
With Fernandel, Edouard Delmont, Françoise Arnoul.
France, 1954, 35mm, black & white, 100 min.
French with English subtitles.
French comic actor Fernandel plays six different roles—quintuplet brothers and their father—in this farce about a family reunion. A cantankerous vintner resents his five sons for leaving home to go to school and never returning. The town doctor (Delmont) seeks to reconcile the family and goes out in search of each son with often-hilarious results. Structured as a series of sketches which showcase Fernandel's comic skills, the film was tailored to the actor's unique brand of physical comedy.
-
The Law is the Law (La loi, c'est la loi)
Directed by Christian-Jaque.
With Fernandel, Totò, Nino Besozzi.
Italy/France, 1958, 35mm, black & white, 95 min.
French with English subtitles.
Print source: HFA
This comedy of manners marked the first on-screen pairing of the great screen clowns of European cinema: Fernandel and Totò. A French customs agent battles wits with an Italian smuggler in a fictional town on the Franco-Italian border. His plans to nab the bandit are undermined when he learns that he was born an Italian citizen and no longer has legal authority to pursue his prey. The superstar casting of both Fernandel and Totò helped make the film one of the most commercially successful European films of the 1950s.
Part of film series
Screenings from this program
Ballad of a Soldier / The Forty-First
Nightfall / Great Day in the Morning
Verboten! / Dead Pigeon on Beethoven Street
I'll Never Forget What's 'is Name / The Jokers
Hearts of the World / True Heart Susie
Anna Christie / The Long Voyage Home
Suddenly Last Summer / The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone
Quiet Days in Clichy / Henry and June
The Freshman / The Sin of Harold Diddlebock
The Sheep Has Five Legs / The Law is the Law
Hobson's Choice / Sidewalks of London
I Know Where I'm Going / Outcast of the Islands
An Inspector Calls / The Belles of St. Trinian's
Mother Joan of the Angels / Thérèse
Dawn of the Dead / Strange Behavior
