Pépito runs a gang of thugs with authority. He has a natural son, Gaston, a professor of literature in Aix-en-Provence, whom he has hardly ever seen. Gaston announces himself for Christmas, and Pépito decides to make him look good by moving into his headquarters: a château where the crooks will be able to exercise their talents as composers.
Acting
Darry Cowl's flustered professor vs. Yves Deniaud's swaggering crime dad.
Production
Gangsters awkwardly inhabiting a crumbling château is pure visual comedy.
Director
Carlo Rim
Yves Deniaud
Pépito
Micheline Dax
Lulu
Darry Cowl
Gaston
Raymond Devos
The abbot
Jacques Fabbri
Ravaillac
Marcelle Arnold
Marjorie Cleanwater, novelist
Jean Bellanger
'La Caisse', band’s treasurer
Jean-Roger Caussimon
Joseph
Jacques Charon
'La Tulipe'
Robert Dalban
'Petite Main'
Robert Lombard
Hector Chassepot, Captain of the gendarmerie
Made Siamé
Woman from Pepito's gang
André Weber
'Cure-dent'
Bernard Charlan
Man who asks for a little white
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Director Carlo Rim was a prolific French screenwriter who rarely directed; this was one of his few turns behind the camera.
The film satirizes postwar French anxieties about American gangster culture invading provincial life—Pépito's crew are wannabe Capones in berets.
FR
