A glossy comedy that's on the dull side for three quarters of an hour - until Dick Van Dyke gets into his stride. Just when it seems that the direction is getting on top him, Van Dyke, aided by writer Carl Reiner, who penned his best TV shows, breaks free of his confines, and saves the film by sheer hard work and inventiveness. As a Paris painter who fakes suicide to make his pictures sell, then frames his best friend (James Garner) for the `murder' after Garner has stolen his girl, Van Dyke gives a brilliant comedy performance. Just to see his jig of joy in the disguise of an old man, or to watch him running through streets like a hamstrung racehorse to save Garner from the guillotine make it worth switching on. A French inspector in the Clouseau style is all the funnier for not seeing too much of him. Played by Pierre Olaf, he's played on to Clouseau-type music, but, when Garner protests his innocence, he tells him: "You've seen too many Peter Sellers films".


©ipc tx. Film content from TVTimes