Le Trou Normand

This featherweight farce would have been long forgotten if it didn't mark Bardot's debut (introducing her posed in front of a mirror, buttoning her dress). Seventeen years old, not yet made-over by Vadim, with puppy fat still clinging to her cheeks, she's entirely captivating. Her co-heroine (Basile) takes one look and rushes off to sob into her pillow ('Papa, am I ugly?'), not appreciating that BB's aphrodisiac presence might have made Aphrodite herself feel inadequate. The film is a vehicle for Bourvil's good-natured simpleton character, a slightly less innocent George Formby (he even gets to sing a novelty number). The plot is similarly Formby-like: before he can inherit Le Trou Normand inn, our hero must return to the classroom and pass his school certificate. The humour, however, derives more from behaviour than gags, and is utterly conventional