Discover this day in September 1968 when comic actor Louis de Funès was the victim of a blackmailer.
The year 1968 was not easy for Louis de Funès. For four years, however, he has been the most recognized comic star of French cinema, with some of the greatest successes of the moment to his credit: Le Corniaud, La Grande vadrouille, the Fantômas trilogy (which could see a brand new adaptation) or even Oscar!
However, he will be the victim of a dark affair.
You make too much money!
In September, Louis de Funès receives a letter signed “Pierre Langlois” indicating: “You have to pay 150,000 F to help my group, you earn too much money in this bourgeois state”. For comparison, 150,000 1968 francs would be equivalent, according to INSEEmore than 200,000 euros by 2022!
This blackmail is organized by a small group called “Delta 4”, formed following the events of May and June. But the real responsible denounces almost a month later.
We then learn that it is a certain Jacques Robert, a 34-year-old man with a psychiatric history. Judged for this case, he was sentenced to 18 months in prison for attempted extortion.
SNC, Medusa Distribution
Robert will be talked about again in 1977 when he hijacked an Air Inter plane, but this time his actions will have more disastrous consequences. The police assault cause one death, one serious injury and three minor injuries.
Quite ironically – or perhaps it is not a coincidence – Louis de Funès will again be the victim of a blackmailer but this time “for fakes” in Jo, by Jean Girault, released in 1971, i.e. three years after this case.
However, the context is not the same because, in the film as in the play from which it is inspired, the blackmail concerns this time a secret surrounding the wife of the main character, played by the incomparable Claude Gensac.
More trouble for De Funès!
SNC, Medusa Distribution
Earlier in 1968, during the events of May during which part of the young French rebels against the established order, Louis de Funès sees the shooting of Gendarme marie, third opus of the saga, disturbed. The technicians, pushed by their unions, are ready to stop the production of Jean Girault’s film.
Panicked, De Funès is afraid that someone will come to him to steal his hard-earned money – remember that the actor has known decades of “lean cows” during which he worked as an extra in the cinema during the day and played the piano during the night to pay his bills and support his family.
The comic actor therefore instructs his director and friend Jean Girault to go as quickly as possible to his property and dig up a safe filled with gold bars! We then imagine the scene very well, as if taken from Break the Bank (by Jean Girault, by the way) with a De Funès wearing a construction helmet on his head and a plan in his hand!
StudioCanal
De Funès in “Break the Bank”
The director complies but will never find the precious treasure, and the strike is pronounced on the set, to the great displeasure of De Funès, who continues to come to the set every day to show his disagreement. He resigned himself until filming resumed in early June.
Is Le Gendarme marie the best Louis de Funès film according to your votes? In any case, when it was released on October 30, 1968, the feature film achieved an impressive score at the box office with 6.82 million admissions in France, less than the first episode of the adventures of Cruchot and Gerber (7 .8 million), but more than Le Gendarme à New York (5.49 million).
The Gendarme on a walk will be released two years later and will not be unworthy with 4.87 million tickets sold.