The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob

The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob (French: Les Aventures de Rabbi Jacob, pronounced [lez‿avɑ̃tyʁ də ʁabi ʒakɔb]) is a 1973 French-Italian comedy film directed by Gérard Oury, starring Louis de Funès and Claude Giraud. It follows a bigoted businessman and a kidnapped revolutionist who disguise themselves as rabbis to escape from assassins. One of De Funès' most popular and iconic movies, it has become a cult classic.[4]

The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob
Poster for the French release
Directed byGérard Oury
Written byGérard Oury
Danièle Thompson
Josy Eisenberg
Roberto de Leonardis
Produced byBertrand Javal
StarringLouis de Funès
Suzy Delair
Claude Giraud
Marcel Dalio
Claude Piéplu
Renzo Montagnani
Henri Guybet
Miou-Miou
CinematographyHenri Decaë
Edited byAlbert Jurgenson
Music byVladimir Cosma
Production
company
Distributed by20th Century Fox (U.S.)
Release date
18 October 1973
Running time
100 minutes
CountriesFrance
Italy[1]
LanguageFrench
Budget$4.5 million[2]
Box office$54.7 million[3]

Plot

Rabbi Jacob (Marcel Dalio) is one of the most beloved rabbis of New York. One day, the French side of his family, the Schmolls, invite him to celebrate the bar mitzvah of young David, and he boards a plane for his native France after more than 30 years of American life. His young friend Rabbi Samuel accompanies him.

In Normandy (northern France), the rich businessman Victor Pivert (Louis de Funès) is also on his way to a wedding; his daughter (Miou-Miou) will be married the next day. Pivert is a dreadful man: bad-tempered, rude and bigoted, with a well-honed racism against Blacks, Jews, and pretty much all foreigners. He and his driver, Salomon (Henri Guybet), have a car accident in which Pivert's car (carrying a speed boat) flips upside-down into a lake. When Salomon, who is Jewish, refuses to help because the Sabbath has just begun, Pivert fires him, much to Salomon's content.

Arab revolutionist leader Mohamed Larbi Slimane (Claude Giraud) is kidnapped by killers who are working for his country's government. The team, led by Colonel Farès, takes him by night to an empty bubble gum factory... the same place where Victor Pivert goes to find assistance. Pivert involuntarily helps Slimane to flee, leaving two killers' corpses behind them. The police, alerted by Salomon, find the bodies and accuse Pivert of the crime.

The next day, Slimane forces Pivert to go to Orly airport to catch a plane to Slimane's country (if the revolution succeeds, he will become President). However, they are followed by a number of people: the jealous Germaine, Pivert's wife, who thinks her husband is going to leave her for another woman; Farès and the killers; and the police commissioner Andréani (Claude Piéplu), a zealous and overly suspicious cop who imagines that Pivert is the new Al Capone. Farès and his cohorts manage to kidnap Germaine, and they use her own dentist equipment to interrogate her.

Trying to conceal his and Pivert's identities, Slimane attacks two rabbis in the toilets, stealing their clothes and shaving their beards and their payot. The disguises are perfect, and they are mistaken for Rabbi Jacob and Rabbi Samuel by the Schmoll family. The only one who recognizes Pivert (and Slimane) behind the disguise is Salomon, his former driver, who just happens to be a Schmoll nephew. But Pivert and Slimane are able to keep their identity secret and even manage to hold a sermon in Hebrew, thanks to the polylingual Slimane, as well as taking part in a very energetic Hasidic dance, one of the memorable scenes from the film.[5]

After a few misunderstandings, Commissioner Andréani and his two inspectors are mistaken by the Jews for terrorists, attempting to kill Rabbi Jacob. The real Rabbi Jacob arrives at Orly, where no one is waiting for him any more. He is mistaken for Victor Pivert by the police, then by Farès and his killers (both times in a painful way for his long beard).

There is a chaotic, but sweeping happy ending:

  • the revolution is a success, and Slimane becomes President of the Republic
  • Pivert's daughter falls in love with Slimane and escapes her dull fiancé near the altar to go with him
  • Pivert learns tolerance towards other religions and cultures, and also Salomon and Slimane make peace with their respective Arab and Jewish colleagues
  • the Schmolls finally find the real Rabbi Jacob
  • the Piverts and the Schmolls go together feasting and celebrating

Cast

Release

On the day of the film's release, October 18, 1973, while Georges Cravenne, the film's publicity agent, was promoting the film, his second wife Danielle Cravenne hijacked an Air France B727 which was en route from Paris to Egypt.[6] Armed with a .22 long rifle and a fake pistol, she threatened to destroy the plane if the film was not banned. Cravenne declared herself to be a member of the solidarity movement for the French-Israeli-Arab reconciliation and considered the film's release unacceptable as it was being released during the Yom Kippur War.[7] Cravenne agreed to let the plane land in Marseille to refuel. French police disguised as maintenance workers boarded the plane and shot and killed her. Cravenne was 35 years old. The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob was still released.[8]

Reception

Critical response

The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob received universal acclaim from critics and was nominated for a Golden Globes Award in the category of Best Foreign Film. It is widely regarded as one of the most popular French comedies of all time.[9] Phil Hall of Film Threat called it, "A masterpiece of slapstick", stating that "This wild movie achieves the near-impossible of being politically incorrect without being nasty, of overdoing the slapstick without becoming tiresome."[10] Roger Moore of Movie Nation stated: "Pre-Blazing Saddles and Airplane!, Rabbi Jacob could claim to having more gags-per-minute than any film anybody had ever seen."[11] Judith Cris of New York Magazine was equally enthusiastic upon its release, "Rabbi Jacob is the best of the Chaplin-Marx Bros. spirit, sustained by a touch of satire here and a wink there."[2]

Box office

The film broke box-office records in France, Spain and Canada.[2] A total of 7,295,727 tickets were purchased by the end of its theatrical run, placing it at the top of the French box-office for films released in 1973.[12]

Notes
  1. "The Mad Adventures of "Rabbi" Jacob". Allmovie. Retrieved December 1, 2012.
  2. Cris, Judith (June 22, 1974). "Rabbi, Run". New York Magazine. Retrieved August 26, 2022.
  3. JP. "Les Aventures de Rabbi Jacob ()". JP's Box-Office (Version Mobile) (in French). Retrieved 2019-01-27.
  4. "A Film and Its Era: The Adventures of Rabbi Jacob – Aubery Edler – France". Eurochannel. Retrieved 2015-12-17.
  5. "Rabbi Jacob : 200 personnes reprennent sa danse dans un flashmob à Paris. Un cadeau pour l'anniversaire de Louis de Funès, qui aurait eu 105 ans le 31 juillet." [Rabbi Jacob: 200 people resume his dance in a flashmob in Paris. A gift for the birthday of Louis de Funès, who would have been 105 on July 31.], franceinfo, July 10, 2019
  6. Baum, Philip (2017). Violence in the Skies: A History of Aircraft Hijacking and Bombing. Summersdale. ISBN 978-1849538381.
  7. Thompson, Danièle (September 30, 2008). "The Day When..."Rabbi Jacob" was released between laughter and drama". Paris Match. Retrieved August 26, 2022.
  8. Renaud, BO (December 25, 1973). "The Archives of the Box Office".
  9. "The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob". Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved August 26, 2022.
  10. Hall, Phil (April 29, 2004). "The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob". Film Threat. Retrieved August 26, 2022.
  11. Moore, Roger (2021-04-23). "Classic Film Review: An Essential French Farce — "The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob" (1973)". Movie Nation. Retrieved 2022-08-26.
  12. Soyer, Renaud (July 19, 2014). "Les aventures des Rabbi Jacob - Louis de Funès Box Office 1973". Box Office Story. Retrieved August 26, 2022.

Further reading
  • Mulvey, Michael. (2017). "What Was So Funny about Les Aventures de Rabbi Jacob (1973): A Comedic Film between History and Memory", French Politics, Culture & Society, 35(3), pp. 24–43 JSTOR 26892954 — The article puts the film into the political, moral, and cultural perspective of France of the times.
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