Partially because of the difficulty of translating some of the French slang wordplay, Les Tontons Flingueurs which roughly translates as The Gunslinger Uncles, though it was released internationally as both Mr Gangster and Crooks in Clover isn't a barrel of laughs in its English subtitled version but does offer plenty of dry humour once it gets the plot setup out of the way and gets down to business. Lino Ventura is the former crook who's been making a decent living selling tractors for 15 years who's suddenly summoned to Paris to visit an old friend who had been deported only to sneak back into the country because "France is the only place to die." Which he promptly does but not before leaving Ventura his criminal empire and guardianship of his gorgeous teenage daughter (Sabine Sinjen), who must be kept in the dark about both his death and his criminal activities. Naturally this doesn't go down to well with the rest of the organisation, particularly would-be heir apparent Bernard Blier, and it's not long before the lead is flying and Ventura has to get them back into line and avoid their assassination attempts while dealing with his new niece's cultured poseur boyfriend Claude Rich ("I don't charm, I enchant!").Adding to his woes is the fact that business isn't what it should be and no-one's paying on time. Whether it's his very capable bodyguard showing off his new Beretta while bemoaning the fact that the high cost means he has to work more, a madame complaining about the recession keeping her customers at home and watching TV because they can't compete with soap operas or a bootlegger complaining that the young drink sodas for their health and the old drink mineral water for their livers while his drivers go off to the Sahara for the free health care and overseas allowance, everybody's got a hard luck story. And one of them has a birthday present for Ventura that ticks...
Based very loosely on the wonderfully titled Grisbi or Not Grisbi by Touchez Pas Au Grisbi's Albert Simonin, Tontons didn't make much of an impact when it was released in 1963 but was one of those films that reissues and TV screenings turned into a massive favorite with French audiences over the years. Beginning like exactly the kind of polar it goes on to satirise and playing both on nostalgia for the good old days when criminals were criminals and gently satirising respectable family values, it's one of those films that builds nicely and, thanks to Georges Lautner's direction, never overplays its jokes even when things get more boisterous. It's a perfectly cast piece too, with Blier's reactions to constantly taking the fall for everything particularly cherishable, but everyone else is on top form too, from Ventura's alternately hangdog or exasperated lead and Francis Blanche's lawyer to Venantino Venatini's loyal hood and Horst Frank's philosophical and homicidal moonshine merchant who'll find someone else to take potshots at if he can't kill who he's aiming at "It's not fair but it makes me feel better." Even Robert Dalban's terrible English accent as the safecracker turned butler is forgivable thanks to his deadpan delivery. Ending with everyone getting what they deserve (and a sly throwaway cameo by Paul Meurisse as his `Monocle' character from Lautner's series of French spy spoofs that will baffle many viewers almost as much as it does the cast), it's such a delight it's a surprise this somehow managed to avoid the run of American remakes of French comedies over the years.
Gaumont's region-free French Blu-ray release offers a very nice widescreen black and white transfer with as decent an English subtitling job as you can expect for a film filled with wordplay and cultural references which will mean little outside of France. In fact, some of them clearly need explaining to modern French audiences too since the disc comes with a neat 22-minute guide to them that's sadly not subtitled for English speakers (nor are the making of featurette, 52-minute documentary on composer Michel Magne or the tongue-in-cheek narration extolling the film's moral and family values in its original trailer). Be warned that the French DVD has no English subtitles on the feature.
Buy Monsieur Gangster (1963) Now
Well this may very well be a sendup of gangster films, but I'll never know the whole of it there are no subtitles ! Shame on me for not electing to study French in high school/college !There should be a listing of this dvd's features, and Amazon LLC sold it ! And I should have checked more thoroughly on this Gaumont release.
This refers to this specific version of this title -
amazon.com/tontons-flingueurs-Ventura-French-version/dp/B002MD2Z10/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1345514032&sr=1-1&keywords=Les+tontons+flingueurs
Read Best Reviews of Monsieur Gangster (1963) Here
bonne qualité du dvd . il y a qu'a l'étranger que l'on peut trouver ces dvd à un prix défiant toutes concurrences . je regrette juste le manque de bonus dans cette édition .à part cela je le recommande vivement à tous ceux qui sont fans de ces années audiard / lautner et ces merveilleux acteurs , lino ventura , bernard biler , jean lefevre .
:-))))
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