Thu 22 Mar 2018
Reviewed by Dan Stumpf: THAT MAN FROM RIO (1964).
Posted by Steve under Action Adventure movies , Reviews[5] Comments
THAT MAN FROM RIO. Les Films Ariane, France, 1964. Lopert Pictures Corporation, US, 1964 (subtitled). Original title: L’homme de Rio. Jean-Paul Belmondo, Francoise Dorleac, Jean Servais and Adolpho Celi. Written by Jean-Paul Rappeneau, Ariane Mnouchkine, Daniel Boulanger, and Philippe de Broca. Directed by Philippe de Broca.
The first thing I noticed was that this movie had four writers, just like the old-time movie serials it resembles. The second thing was that it’s fun, funny and compulsively watchable.
Steven Spielberg said those old serials were the inspiration for Raiders of the Lost Ark, but this seems the more likely antecedent, starting with the theft of an ancient relic in Paris, the kidnapping of a scientist’s lovely daughter (Dorleac) and the whole rest of the movie, spent in a cliff-hanging pursuit to a lost temple in the jungle filled with priceless treasure etc. etc …..
De Broca & Co handle all this with speed and good humor, tossing a few laugh-out-loud moments into a stew of fights, chases and amusing stunt work by Belmondo himself, who insists on keeping his ugly mug to the camera so we can see that it is he who is dangling from skyscrapers, clinging to the wing of an airplane, swinging through jungles and getting knocked about in a spectacular barroom brawl.
Jean Servais and Adolpho Celi lend some fine villainy to the proceedings, and Ms Dorleac is spirited, lovely, and a far better actress than most serial queens. As for Belmondo, he makes a perfect heroic Everyguy: bemused, bothered, and beleaguered, as he tromps through one peril and the next with a patient shrug and a wry smile, not taking any of this more seriously than we do.
I should add that towards the end there’s a very thoughtful and sobering split-second. A plot twist I wasn’t expecting that seems like a grim augury of things to come — things we weren’t paying much attention to in 1964 — but it’s soon over, and we’re back to the light-hearted comedy.
Funny, though: I’ll remember this movie with affection, but I suspect I’ll remember that dark moment a lot longer….
March 22nd, 2018 at 6:58 pm
Dorleac, best remembered now as Catherine Deneuve’s older sister, died tragically in an auto accident just as her career was really taking off.
I always remember her in this, as well as starring opposite Deneuve (and Gene Kelly and George Chakiris) in Louis Malle’s French dance musical “Les Demoiselles De Rochefort”. I think both films are terrific (and terrifically charming).
March 22nd, 2018 at 7:43 pm
My father took us kids to a dubbed version of this in Lansing, Michigan when it first came out. We all loved it, especially my sister. We saw lots of dubbed foreign films – my parents were big fans.
My favorite scene has Belmondo on the skyscraper.
My mother’s all time favorite film was Broca’s Tendre poulet / Dear Detective. Its a cheery mystery.
March 22nd, 2018 at 10:50 pm
Belmondo at times seems to be channeling Doug Fairbanks Sr. and Buster Keaton in this one. The sequel (of sorts) with Ursula Andress doesn’t work quite as well, but still has those amazing stunts and a sense of adventure as sheer fun.
That sobering moment proved to be an all too apt commentary, a touch that was ironic then and tragic now.
What amazes me rewatching this is how easily you get wrapped up in the story and how little effort it takes to buy Belmondo as the type who would travel halfway around the world on leave from the military to rescue his girl. On paper it might have sounded absurd, but with this cast you buy it without working up a sweat about logic.
It’s also a reminder how much Belmondo’s physicality was a part of his persona.
March 23rd, 2018 at 10:01 am
I love the sequence where Belmondo just sneaks on board an airliner and is able to just fly off to Rio on the spur of the moment as a passenger. What simpler times.
March 23rd, 2018 at 8:58 pm
In the last two decades, the pride of men in movies has been eliminated. Now they have to put on the face of the afflicted, as if they were carrying the cross for the sins of some part of the past, or being clowns without grace.