La Vache et le Prisonnier

On the same principle that so long as you're holding a clipboard, you can saunter around any workplace in the world, escaped PoW Fernandel crosses Germany virtually unchallenged, leading a cow with one hand and carrying a milk pail in the other. This is a sturdy, even affecting tale, with whimsy mostly held at bay. The cow is not made to do cute things and remains an admirably cow-like, anonymous sort of cow. Fernandel is as restrained as he ever gets, the German characters are uncommonly affable and pacific, and the mood is one of wistfulness, notably in the underplayed ending when our hero jumps the wrong freight train and goes rattling straight back to where he started from.