Le
bossu (given the English title On Guard!),
directed by Phillipe de Broca, features swordplay, court intrigue,
horses dashing through the French countryside from Nice to
Paris, all to the accompaniment of the music of Cavalleria
Rusticana and based on an 1857 novel by Paul Féval.
The story takes place at the turn of the seventeenth century.
The villain is the Comte de Gonzague (played by Fabrice Luchini),
who wants to gain great wealth, including ownership of the
Mississippi Territory, but he will inherit a fortune only
in the case of the untimely death of the robust Duke de Nevers
(played by Vincent Perez), a handsome master of fencing. Aware
that the Duke has fathered a child by Blanche de Caylus (played
by Claire Nebout), Gonzague has hidden letters that reveal
the pregnancy. However, when word of the birth of their child
reaches the Duke one day, he sets out for her castle, a trip
of several days, to marry her. Gonzague, accordingly, hires
an army of assassins, who slay the entire wedding party and
bring Blanche back to Paris, where she is confined to a room
in the king's castle for sixteen years. Before the Duke took
the journey to marry his sweetheart, he met Lagardère
(played by Daniel Auteuil), who challenged him to a fencing
duel to learn his special sword technique, thereby impressing
the Duke. Accordingly, the Duke hires Lagardère as
a bodyguard for the trip. (Perhaps so that we will not be
so disappointed about the fate of the Duke, the story has
the Duke inviting Lagardère to engage in "sodomy,"
an offer that the latter declines.) While the assassins are
killing everyone in the wedding party, Lagardère pledges
to a dying Duke that he will avenge the slaughter by reinstalling
Blanche and their daughter Aurore to their rightful places
in the kingdom. Lagardère then rescues their child
and brings her up, pretending to be her father. In time, Lagardère
returns to Paris to carry out his pledge. Disguised as a hunchback
(hence the French title, which means "hunchback"),
Gonzague hires Lagardère as his amanuensis. Lagardère
then secretly meets Blanche, preparing her for a showdown
with Gonzague, and he manipulates Gonzague's accountbooks
so that Blanche can reclaim her fortune as well as her position
along with her daughter, teenage Aurore (played by Marie Gillain).
With many subplots along the way, the story moves quickly
to an expected conclusion, but with a lot of action, humor,
and period costumes to ensure. Good triumphs over evil spectacularly.
Although such a film doubtless would have broken box office
records in the 1960s, when director de Broca began his career
with such delights as Cartouche
(1962), the 1998 French film Le bossu
lamentably has taken five years to be exhibited in the United
States, and only then to art house cinemas. MH
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want to comment on this film
