French comic Fernandel occupies basically the same niche as Jerry Lewis and Norman Wisdom do in American and British cinema respectively: his immense popularity is as much a mystery to this viewer as his particular brand of fooling – prone to excessive mugging and with pathos never too far away – is resistible. To be fair to him, he tried his hand more regularly at serious fare, finding a congenial rapport with such luminaries as Marcel Pagnol, Julien Duvivier (who also started the star off on the series revolving around his signature role of Don Camillo – which even gets a delightful lampoon here, but more on this later) and the director of this film.A favourite premise with star comedians is their showing off in multiple roles: in fact, Fernandel here plays a family patriarch and his five offsprings; frankly, I was surprised he did not include a female impersonation among the lot – but the characters are, in any case, sufficiently differentiated between them. Typically, some get more attention than others: however, this eventually pays off here when one of them himself becomes the father of sextuplets (to go along with the four he already had!).The narrative follows a necessarily episodic structure, which invariably yields hits and misses throughout; still, the highlights are pretty memorable: the bucolic old man's noisy disapproval of a highbrow play being staged inside an amphitheatre; the ne'er-do-well family man's tenure with creepy funeral director Louis De Funes (who would grow to similar stardom by the next decade) – on the other hand, his brushes with a celebrated beautician sibling are less successful...but do feature a surprising amount of nudity!; a journalist, reduced to serving as "Agony Aunt" on a magazine, is mistaken for a young woman's wealthy but middle-aged intended when he goes to visit her stuffy family actually bearing the news of the man's sudden death; a 'salty dog' engages first in routine card-play with various shifty types and then, after he loses everything (including the ship's cargo), an intense game of chance involving a fly and two pieces of sugar in an effort to retrieve his losses and make a 'killing' besides (this, too, is a fairly risqué scene – showing a girl in the skimpiest of South Sea attires!); a curate has become reclusive because the locals do not take him seriously on account of him being a dead-ringer for the afore-mentioned Don Camillo!The movie received an Oscar nomination for the heavily-credited story, following its 1955 U.S. release; incidentally, an unspecified prize did go its way at the Locarno International Film Festival. To be honest, having watched this, I am willing to cut Fernandel some slack by approaching his filmography with more of an open mind (I do own a fair amount to tide me over) – if anything, I ought to give his "Don Camillo" outings a glance at long last...having missed out on them countless times on Italian TV ever since my childhood days!

A very good classic french comedy with famous french actors, I mean, Fernandel and Louis de Funes. Fernandel is a star here, he plays 6 different people in this film, and different people of different age! It's easy to understand what a great comedy actor he is! Funes is also play great part here... (and here he still has his hair:). This film contain many very well-filmed moments and it is,of course,a good family movie( it contains a little nudity, but it's very gentle).And in conclusion I must say that it isn't funny from A to Z, it's just a clever film that is very good for old cinema lovers...So, have a good time.And also watch Public enemy n.1 (1953) with Fernandel. It's worth a look!!! P.S (Later Mister Pitkin uses jokes and tricks that Fernandel do in this one...)

A favourite French comedy that admirably showcases the artistry of Fernandel. The episode involving - inter alia - a fly and a most comely young lady, remains one of my fond adolescent memories of subtitled 1950's French cinema at the local cinema. Recommended if you want to revisit (or visit) a magic time in French cinema or see a great comedic artist at work in other than the Don Camillo guise most non - French viewers know.

Fernandel is brilliant in multiple roles that stretch his abilities as a wonderful comedic actor with the "horse faced" grin. The story concept is clever with a delightful "surprise" conclusion, yet it is the episodic statements that give full bloom to this wonderful film; especially the sequence aboard the tramp steamer when a gambling game involves the reaction of its players to a housefly.