Fun in the Barracks (1932) User Reviews

The regiment

[jotix100 · 6/10 · 10 May 2012]

This 1932 French comedy surfaced recently on an international cable channel. The allure for watching was the presence of Jean Gabin, but alas, the actor only had a supporting role. The real star of the film was Raimu a talented actor who is seen as Captain Hurluret. The production, directed by Maurice Tourneur is dated, but that was a style prevalent in French comedies from that period.

The story is simple, and yet there are moments of fun as the men in the barracks do what is expected of them. The story begins with the escape of two soldiers who have had it pent up in such close quarters. The superiors love to punish anyone who might look back at them the wrong way. It shows how the chain of command works in an institution such as the one at the center of the story.

Mr. Tourneur gets good moments in the film. Besides the great Raimu, one of France's beloved actors, there are Fernandel, Jean Gabin, Rene Donnio, Pierre Labry and a lot of comedians from the era that went on to have distinguished careers in the French cinema. The copy we saw evidently had been color mastered, but only at certain moments, reverting to black and white in some scenes. We have no clue as to why this discrepancy.

"Fun at the Barracks" offers a look at comedy in France in the 1930s thanks to Maurice Tourneur's direction. Incidentally, the director's son Jacques is credited with the editing.

A coarse comedy....

[dbdumonteil · 5/10 · 17 March 2007]

It was a genre which was very popular in the early thirties in France .Two other good examples are "Les Dégourdis De La Onzième" and "Ignace" where Fernandel was featured too.Here he is only supporting as is Jean Gabin.

The "crazy barracks" style is really an acquired taste.This kind of comedy is terribly dated.Even with Raimu who plays Captain Hurluru, a military man who seems to make it rough all over the place and who finally is a good man,with a great heart who pays for the headcheese his squaddies have stolen.It's occasionally funny,notably when the general comes for the review and punctuates every captain's gaffe with a terse "it does not really matter" .In those lovely barracks,you can sing,smoke ,drink and eat headcheese in the prisons.

Based on Georges Courteline's work,a writer who wrote spoofs on the army and their iron discipline.

Raimu Makes This

[boblipton · 7/10 · 20 December 2022]

Under their aging captain Raimu, a disorganized force of cavalrymen await an inspection by the general.

I wasn't surprised to see Raimu as the bow-legged, kind-hearted lush in charge in this service comedy, nor Fernandel as a private, constantly beset by conflicting orders that continually add to his days in detention. Jean Gabin, however, is another matter, in concert with René Donnio (best remembered for playing Quixote) as two insubordinate, thieving, lazy low-lives.

It's based on a novel by Georges Courteline, and at times seems more contemptible than funny. As so often, it's up to Raimu to hold together its disparate pieces with irony and sadness that in the end make it work under the direction of Maurice Tourneur. Raimu plays a man risen from the ranks, who has never forgotten his humanity and men he went war with, and cannot bring himself to impose any sort of discipline. Do they steal from the local innkeeper? He pays out of his pocket. Are two men AWOL? He spills ink on the page to hide their malfeasance. He hopes for promotion to colonel, but knows he will never get it, and that's all right. As he does elsewhere, he plays a character both contemptible and lovable.

He died in 1946, age 62.

"Soldiers are in his blood,like women can be under your skin."

[morrison-dylan-fan · 7/10 · 1 April 2019]

Since finding The Devil's Hand and Valley of Hell ( both 1943/both reviewed) to be magnificent,I've been looking out for other works by Maurice Tourneur. Taking part in ICM's Best of 1932 poll,I was happy to stumble on a Tourneur title from the year,which led to me having fun at the barricades.

View on the film:

Going down to the barracks with a sweeping opening shot over the town, director Maurice Tourneur (with editing by his son Jacques!) holds down his styling flourishes in remaking his own 1913 film, to crisply march this mad-cap coarse Comedy,with Tourneur finely dashing between mid and wide-shots to sling the latest escapade of the soldiers, and capture the look of shock from the commanding officers. Based on Georges Courteline and Edouard Nores's play,the adaptation by Georges Dolley stays firmly on the grounds of the stage origins, with the activities being confined to the barricades, but makes up for it with a broad sense of humour in the course slap-sick from the soldiers sneaking banned items in, to slippery one-liners over fears that an unexpected inspection from a general goes awry. Stealing every scene he is in, Raimu gives a hilarious, puffed-up, self-important performance as Hurluret, who cracks as others have fun at the barricades.