Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1953-12-31

the Tulip" which opened yes
terday at the Dupont Theater.
This travesty on mankind's mud
ding in the classic fields of poll
tics, war and romance is an ex-
traordinarily funny affair and
fully entities "Fanfan" to the
high honors it has won among
the movies of 1858.
If the holiday season has a
more hilarious highlight it has
escaped this rover in the groves
of Thespis. Chief purveyors of
the films lightning ironies are
Gerard PHILIPPE and Gina Lola
brigida. the latter an Italian
Venus who would make two, if
not four. of Marilyn Monroe.
For all her overwhelming
charms, however, Miss Lola
brigida is merely the second
character in this farcical fan
taSy. Fanfan is the main one.
AS PHILIPPE draws him, he is an
uncommonly handsome common
man with an amazing gift for af-
fecting females and an equal
talent for kicking the stuffing
out of royal and military stuffed
shirts.
Fanfan, unaware of his place"
in human affairs goes every place
his Whim leadS-from a conven-
lent haystack to the boudoir of
Louis xV's daughter, from the
Army's guardhouse to a meeting
of the French General Staff. The
effects of his laundering visits is
as happy as the sight Of him is
disconcerting to the people he
meets.
The story of his startling rise
in the world is recounted in
English on a sound track recited
by Hiram Sherman. Sherman is
an actor with an anarchial zest
for the likes of Fanfan.
y + y \
Fanfan's story begins at the
base of a haystack where he
makes the decision that he would
rather be a soldier than marry
the girl. He is fortified in this
judgment by the words of a
gypsy miss Lollabrigida) that
he will be a great hero and
marry Louis XV's daughter.
Once in the Army, however.
he loses confidence that it could
win anything. after he strikes
out pretty much on his own.
Where this leads is too labyrin-
thine to be recounted here, but
1t is merrily and madly imagined
and treated with a Gallo candor
that should make Hollywood
tingle with envy.
Christian-Jaque. who produced
and directed "Fanfan," has
caught the universally humorous
in sequence after sequence of
the Dupont's comedy. 1t is the
essence of the human comedy he
goes for. whether the scene in
wolves Fanfan's revolt against
Army rookie calesthenics or Miss
Lollabrigida's boudoir wrestling
match with Louis XIV
PHILIPPE as his principal man
is an actor equally charged with
energy and a sense that man is
a ridiculous posturer. His hero
Is man who has had it on the
word of a beautiful gypsy that
he is fated for a royal marriage.
Thus treasured, why should he
worry that he is sentenced to be
hanged? Or that the stupidity
of the royal house or the Army's
staff is likely to lead France to
extinction?
While it sticks close to the
romantic and military affairs of
Fanfan. observation-disclosures film
neatly interjectS its large asides
These have to do principally to
the fact that wars are lost by
the side which outdoes the other
in stupidity. They are worked
out, and into the body of the
film, in an unfailingly amusing
fashion.
The stunning performances
that have long been the hall
mark of Frances richest comedies
are virtually rampant in "Fanfan,
the Tulip" PHILIPPE and Miss
Lollobrigida, the latter most