The Red Inn

Fernandel's black cassock, appearing in yet another film, might seem to have worn threadbare. But his religious mimicry and lugubrious countenance are still hilarious. The fantastic creatures which surround him, however, and the macabre tone of The Red Inn combine to muffle his easy-going humor.

As a kindly yet none too religious monk, Fernandel attempts to save a group of five travellers from death at the hands of an inn-keeper who finds that ends meet only when he robs and kills his guests. In the process, Fernandel must make some very difficult decisions: whether to eat or give confession to a dying woman and whether to risk his life to save those of the unwitting travellers. In the end, other people make these decisions for him. But this merely enhances the humor.

The plot is a set-up for Fernandel's dolorous humor and his sad, shrewd, ludicrous countenance. Unfortunately, however, director Claude Autant-Lara has given the film a sombre tone which is not congenial to Fernandel's own whimsical, low-pressure style. Autant-Lara sets the mood with a choking death on a dark night (using typically French nonlighting) and the mournful intoning of a balladeer. The horror of death, however, does not stifle Fernandel's humor so much as the flat creatures at the inn. The French comedian seems ill at ease in these dark yet hysterical surroundings.

The contrast between Fernandel and everything else in The Red Inn makes one uncertain whether it is a comedy or a morality play. The sobriety sometimes seems to call for a conscious moral judgment, but the frivolity of its characters does not merit one. In spite of this ambiguity, there is enough of Fernandel at his best to reward the patient viewer.