The Troops of St. Tropez

The Troops of St. Tropez

Film Poster
Directed by Jean Girault
Produced by SNC
Franca Films
Written by Richard Balducci
Jean Girault
Jacques Vilfrid
Starring Louis de Funès
Geneviève Grad
Michel Galabru
Jean Lefebvre
Christian Marin
Music by Raymond Lefèvre
Distributed by SNC
Release dates
  • 9 September 1964

(50 years, 7 months and 21 days ago)

Running time
 95 minutes
Country France
Italy
Language French

The Troops of St. Tropez (French: Le gendarme de Saint-Tropez; literally The Policeman from Saint-Tropez) is a 1964 French comedy film with Louis de Funès. The film mostly takes place in Saint-Tropez, a fashionable resort on the French Riviera. Louis de Funès plays Ludovic Cruchot, the sergeant of gendarmerie of Saint-Tropez. It is the first film in The gendarme series, and has spawned five sequels.

Plot

Today view of Saint-Tropez port, and arriving sequence in film, also with many film action filmed there.

Ludovic Cruchot (played by Louis de Funès), a gendarme in a small French village, has been re-assigned to the seaside commune of Saint-Tropez under the orders of command sergeant major Gerber (played by Michel Galabru).

Soon, the gendarmes find themselves confronted with a major problem: a group of persistent nudists. Cruchot manages to hatch a master plan and succeeds in getting the nude swimmers arrested.

Later, Cruchot discovers that his daughter and her boyfriend have stolen and crashed an expensive Mustang sports car into a ditch. Unbeknownst to any of them, the car belongs to a gang of robbers who have stolen a Rembrandt painting, which is still in the trunk. Cruchot manages to get the car out, but realizes that the objects he threw out of the car to fix a puncture, including the painting, are valuable items.

Mustang similar to that in film

The man who pretends to own the painting then kidnaps Cruchot.

Finally, Cruchot's daughter and her friends knock out the group that kidnapped her father, and the painting is returned to its rightful owner.

Cast

External links