In a long and distinguished career that spanned 40 years and 150 films Fernandel directed only three, none more than mildly successful despite screenplays by luminaries such as Jean Aurenche and Sacha Guitry (the third film, Simplet, was written by his brother-in-law Jean Manse). Two of those films were made for Continental and I'm taking an educated guess that the German-run company who had some difficulty signing quality personnel 'persuaded' him to work for them by allowing him to direct (Fernandel had been working consistently in movies since 1930 and was an established vedette when Continental was formed in October, 1940). They'd also found it tough to sign Jean Aurenche and it may be that the promise of Fernandel as star swayed the writer (although he had already supplied dialogue for another Continental release Defense d'aimer, the previous year). As is to be expected Aurenche provided a sound adaptation of a novel by Jean de Letraz which Letraz had already adapted into a play but Fernandel's direction is that of a Journeyman rather than an innovator but even the 80 minutes running time seems padded by allowing 'money' sequences to run just a tad too long. Fernandel himself is in good form as the eponymous character who is employed by a private bank as a collector and spare-time inventor whose latest effort is motorised roller skates-and even as he is demonstrating them to colleagues we can see the gag in the next reel, which is one of those that runs past its sell-by date. There's also a trio of comical gangsters to say nothing of Paulette Dubost who, for good measure, gets to sing a duet with Fernandel (who also performs two solo numbers). So, yes, all the ingredients are there yet somehow director Fernandel manages to snatch a suet pudding from the jaws of a soufflé'.
Review of Adrien
