Uncle gangsters

Fernand Nadine (Ventura) is the owner of a company for the repair and rental of specialized automotive equipment in the town of Montauban in southern France. He’s a gangster in the past, but retired from business more than 15 years ago. An urgent telegram called him to Paris. Fernand’s longtime friend, Lui- Mexican , one of the crime bosses, calls on him to his deathbed and demands, in the name of his past friendship, to head his business, as well as take care of the daughter of Patricia , a girl of 20 years old. The Mexican represents Fernan to his accomplices and dies. Those, expecting complete freedom after the death of the boss, are unhappy with the news. Two groups stand out among them: under the leadership of the Wolfolfi brothers (Blie and Lefebvre), organizers of an underground gambling business, and under the leadership of Theo (Frank), an illegal alcohol dealer. Nadine can rely only on Maitre Fole (Blanche) - the lawyer of the Mexican, Jean (Dalban) - his butler and Pascal (Venantini), a personal bodyguard. Fernand settles in the Mexican mansion, where, as an “uncle,” who came from abroad, he meets the late daughter Patricia (Xinyen) and her fiancé Antoine Delafua (Rish). A supporter of traditional family values, Nadine requires the girl to continue her abandoned studies and refuse to communicate with Antoine.

Meanwhile, business is in decline. Everyone refuses to pay the new boss, citing this as a general recession in the economy. With fists and a gun, Fernand achieves apparent obedience, but in the following days the assassination attempts on the new leader follow one after another. He is inclined to blame the Wolfolfi brothers for them (although the viewer knows that the Theo group is behind this). After another skirmish, Fernand returns to the mansion, where he finds a riotous drunken party of students, friends of Patricia. Acting as a good uncle, he settles in the kitchen, where he, together with the master Fole and the butler Jean, prepares sandwiches for the company. Suddenly, the Wolfolfi brothers appear with their demands for a business break. Jean successfully disarms them, and the conversation continues at the kitchen table quite peacefully. Men want a drink, but students destroyed all the liquor in the house. It comes with “Cuite au vitriol” ^[4] - a moonshine drink from the time of the Mexican, with notes of apples and beets, would continue to drive, but customers would go blind. ” A strong swill after the first bottle immerses the aging gangsters in nostalgia for the past times, and after the second it awakens fatherly feelings in them. They demand that young people stop immoral behavior and drive a large company home.

In the morning, the outraged Patricia collects her things and leaves the house. Fernand finds her at Antoine Delafoy. There he learns that the father of the young man is the vice president of the International Monetary Fund . His attitude to Antoine is changing dramatically. Having met with Delafua Sr., Fernand agrees to the wedding of the "niece". On the day of the ceremony, just before its start, Nadine and his assistants enter a decisive battle with the Teo group and completely destroy the enemy. Their leader Theo himself dies in a car right at the stairs to the temple, where there is a wedding ceremony. On it, as noble and joyful relatives, leaders of other opposing groups are present.

• Lino Ventura - Fernand Nadine
• Francis Blanche - Maitre Fole, personal lawyer of the Mexican
• Bernard Blieu - Raoul Wolfoni
• Jean Lefebvre - Paul Wolfoni
• Horst Frank - Theo
• Jacques Dumenil - Louis - The Mexican
• Robert Dalban - Jean, Mexican Butler
• Venantino Venantini - Pascal, Mexican bodyguard
• Sabina Sinien - Patricia, daughter of the Mexican
• Claude Risch - Antoine Delafois, Patricia's Fiance
• Pierre Bertin - Adol Amedi Delafoy, father of Antoine, IMF vice president
• Charles Rainier - Tomato

In 1962, Michel Odiar offers Gaumont to make a film based on the novel by his friend Albert Simonen “Guilty or not guilty” (“Grisbi or not grisbi”, 1955). This is the third book from the author’s cycle about Max- “Liar”, the first two of which were successfully filmed with the participation of Jean Gabin : “ Do not touch the booty ” (1954) and “ Revenge of the Coots ” (1961). However, Gabin rejected the offer because he was busy filming the movie “ Melody from the Basement ” and, in addition, the young director Georges Lautner wanted to come completely with his team, which did not suit the actor. The role was proposed by Lino Ventura, he agreed, although initially he objected to the parody and comic nature of his character. In the original, the novel describes the war between the Wolfolfi brothers and Max, the Liar. Since the old master was refused, and Ventura himself played his opponent Angelo in the first film, it was decided to change the name of the main character to Fernand Nadine. In addition, a storyline with the daughter of the Mexican and her fiancé was added to the script ^[5] .

In order to minimize financial risks from working with a relatively young director, Gaumont involved two foreign studios in production: Corona Filmproduktion ( Germany ) and Ultra Film ( Italy ) ^[6] . Filming began in the spring of 1963 in the Yvelines department of central France. The Mexican House is a real-life mansion that Gaumont has rented for one year. The famous "drunk" scene in the kitchen was shot in a real interior. At the same time, contrary to popular belief, all the participants in the shootings were in reality absolutely sober ^[5] . During the editing period, Georges Lautner finally turned the film into a comedy, which caused open dissatisfaction not only with the studio management, but even with the members of the film crew ^[1] . However, in the year of release, more than three million people watched the picture, it did not go off the screens for several months and became the third most successful film in 1963 after “ My Wife 's Husband ” and “Melody from the Basement” ^[5] .

For all its comic nature, the film is visually stylized as a gangster noir of the 1950s. The columnist Le Figaro believes that this painting completes that era, after which the detective genre will never be the same: straightforward and open heroes will be replaced by prudent characters ^[1] .

Recognizing the iconic status of the film, the subtle humor of the dialogues, the stellar cast of actors, some critics consider it protracted, heavy, and even boring ^[2]

One of the main scenes of the film is the conversation of elderly gangsters in the kitchen, when they drink strong moonshine and, very drunk, show hidden traits of their character. The appropriateness of including the episode in the script was disputed by Michel Odiar, but was added to the picture at the insistence of the director as a quote from his favorite movie “ Key Largo ” ^[7] .

An important component of the film is the music of Michel Many . The composer proposed only one musical theme, which for each situation is arranged in different styles: baroque , rock , waltz , folk and so on. Moreover, only four notes were used, corresponding to the sounds of the four bells of Notre Dame Cathedral . Even the performed sonata - the allegedly unknown work of Corelli - was composed by Michel Manem.

In the French-language original, the film is replete with phrases and dialogues that have become winged for several generations of the French ^{[8] [9]} . The most famous is the meme of Lulu from Nantes (Lulu La Nantaise) - a woman who is mentioned only once in a dialogue in the kitchen:

Now “Lulu La Nantaise” are called cafes, bars, restaurants in Paris, Nantes , Montauban, Montreal ^{[10] [11] [12]} ; jazz rock band ^[13] ; line of children's clothing. The fiftieth anniversary of the film’s premiere in October 2013 was celebrated in Nantes as a citywide celebration with a screening of Georges Lautner’s films, performances by the surviving members of the film crew, and tasting of “beetroot cocktails from which they are blinded.” One of the city streets was temporarily renamed Les Tontons flingueurs ^[14] .

• The hero of Jean Lefebvre during a scene in the kitchen could not squeeze out a "drunk" tear. The director secretly mixed cognac, whiskey, pear juice and pepper in one of the glasses. Jean Lefebvre took a long sip and the unexpected action of a sharp drink caused the tears of his character Paul Wolfoni and the phrase “there is a taste of apple” ^[5] .
• During a fight at an illegal distillery, the hero of Lino Ventura fights with Henri Kogan, an actor and stuntman who previously engaged in wrestling . It was he who, in 1950, completed Ventura’s sports career, breaking his leg during a duel. However, he also brought Lino to the cinema ^[6] .

• " Uncle Gangsters ” on the Internet Movie Database  
• Uncle Gangsters on allmovie  
• Uncle Gangsters on the Rotten Tomatoes website