Fernandel, like many of Pagnol's actors, having come from a music-hall background, is ideally suited to this portrait of a country bumpkin who envisions himself the next Charles Boyer and sets off for Paris to make it in the movies. Such a person is called a "schpountz" in local trade parlance and the word somehow resonates particularly well with Fernandel's elastic face, and his elastic nature: the ability always to bounce back that keeps him from being a tragic figure. Pagnol, who should know, takes the opportunity to satirize French producers and their methods of financing, and the film has a number of ridiculous situations and set pieces probably based entirely on reality. Orane Demazis and Charpin co-star.