It's difficult to make a comedy about WWII (or any other wars as well) because if we can laugh, it must be not too loud. In that sense, the movie is among the best, because we indeed laugh a lot but the drama of the times is always in the background: My fellows were in the same time terrorized by the Germans occupying and courageous to help each other and ruin the Germans plans (for example, my grandmother hided a Jewish child in her Free-Zone village).
The casting had a tremendous idea to look for English to play the RAF pilots and German to play the Wechmacht. Thus, our French clowns are more in the spotlight. Fufu is his typical Fufu (the scornful, cowardly middle-class person) and Bourvil is typical Bourvil (the big hearted, simple idiot). Some gags are really funny (the night at the hotel being the climax). The locations are large, from Paris to the free zone, but there are also dragging moments (nearly all the action scenes) that make me rate the movie under their other team-up "Le Corniaud".
The casting had a tremendous idea to look for English to play the RAF pilots and German to play the Wechmacht. Thus, our French clowns are more in the spotlight. Fufu is his typical Fufu (the scornful, cowardly middle-class person) and Bourvil is typical Bourvil (the big hearted, simple idiot). Some gags are really funny (the night at the hotel being the climax). The locations are large, from Paris to the free zone, but there are also dragging moments (nearly all the action scenes) that make me rate the movie under their other team-up "Le Corniaud".