WHO'S GOT THE BLACK BOX? (Route de Corinthe, La) (director: Claude Chabrol; cast: Michel Bouquet (Sharps), Claude Chabrol (Alcibiades), Jean Seberg (Shanny Ford), Paulo Justi (Josio),Christian Marquand (Robert Ford), Saro Urzì (Kalhides), Anthony Pass (The killer), Maurice Ronet (Dex), 1968-France)
This is a goofy spy comedy, filled with asides to Greek tragedy, that you would expect to see supporting character actors such as Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet in, but their character roles are taken up by such diverse oddball characters as, Anthony Pass, playing a very pasty looking killer, a Peter Lorre type of role, as he is dressed in a white suit, with a straw hat that has a red ribbon around it, always with a rose in his lapel, as he takes great enthusiasm in his job, doing it with a panache reserved for high camp, yet he is particularly menacing as a villain, even as he jumps for joy on certain occasions and raises an effeminate eyebrow, as he waits in a hotel room ready to kill the heroine.
Saro Urzì, as Mr. Kalhides, is the crime boss and owner of the marble foundry, where all the espionage takes place, acting piggishly vulgar, willing to halt his execution of Shanny Ford (Jean) for the possibility of a little romance with her, as he is seen eating legs of lamb during various scenes, while wiping his mouth with the palm of his hand, and who could be fittingly forceful when exuding an air of comic sinisterism. As the one giving the orders, the big boss, he is a less portly version of Sydney Greenstreet, playing the type of role once reserved for the mirthful Greenstreet.
Claude Chabrol plays Alcibiades, a character who could be in a look alike contest with other Fidel Castro contestants, and be considered the favorite to win, as he starts the pot boiling with his hot tip to Robert Ford (Marquand), if Ford will give him 1,000, he will tell him where to locate the black boxes that Ford is looking for. Ford is an Agent working on cracking the case of where the black boxes that have been smuggled into the country are, as they are capable of dismantling radar systems and destroying missiles. Don't ask too much more about the plot, it is not particularly pertinent, and some explanations about what this film is about, were obviously snipped off at the cutting room. But an unclear story and poor dubbing quality of most of the non-English speaking actors, does not really hamper the absurdity presented on screen, because it is done in such a way, that it defies any critical commentary, having a dark humor about it that is funnier than hell.
The bizarre opening, and it is bizarre and ticklishly funny, has a magician billed as "Socrates the world's greatest magician" being stopped at the border as he tries to get into Greece, smuggling in a black box, but gets caught by the border guards who procede to beat him in order to get information out of him, as he chooses to die from his own hand, taking a cyanide pill, but not before he goes into a Shakespearian soliloquy that tells his captors that it is too late, there are already 15 black boxes in the country.
Chabrol has gone to absurd extremes of humor in this commercially driven screwball comic/mystery, that has the Agents working for the Greek government, at least I think that is who they are working for.The one in charge of them, is a lazy, sleazy, and mediocre bureaucrat, named Sharp (Bouquet), aptly named because he is a dull wit, who is clueless about what is going on, as he confronts the two Agents working for him, the imaginative but usually wrong, Robert, and the more steady Dex (Ronet), who like Sharp, has his eye on Robert's appealing wife, Shanny, only he doesn't get his face slapped like Sharp does by her, as Sharp makes too much of an overt pass at her. Jean Seberg, the much maligned actress, is just terrific in this breezy role, showing a certain amount of vulnerability and courage and sex appeal, and an eye for comic timing, as she takes over for Robert when he is killed just before he was going to tell her the info he has about the black boxes, and they were to celebrate the news with champagne and love making.
The road to Corinthe, the European title for the film, is the road to the marble foundry owned by Kalhides. It is the place where there is this great mix of intrigue and murder and comedy, as the black boxes are discovered there, hidden in the statues' heads, and as Kalhides says, if you think I'm not imaginative enough to put them someplace else, you are wrong, because some of them I have put in the base of the statue.
The danger Shanny finds herself in, as the villains go after her, is routinely filled with one surprise after another, as she gets a ride from a simple-minded truck driver (Justi), who constantly eats sardines and could use a little romance from her, as she pumps him for info about his boss, the ever-present Kalhides, who murders the trucker, just because he kept him from killing Shanny, which was a visually bizarre scene, showing how he has her placed on a giant hook on a crane, lifting her up and ready to dump her into a rock pile.
Dex saves the day, finding it in his heart to go against his boss, Sharp, who orders Shanny to go back to New York; but, Dex decides to risk losing his job by reluctantly helping Shanny fight the keepers of the black box. It is a wonderful B movie experience, that rips deliciously into the spy film genre and comes away with a bundle of laughs for all its awkwardness and a ridiculous ending to a story that fails to make much sense. I think Chabrol hit it best, when the opening epigraph states, " I do not ask you to believe it, but I suggest that you dream about it." Well, maybe, you don't want to dream about it, but if you daydream about it during the time of day when you are a little bored with things or upset over something, the absurdity of this film should bring a smile to you.
REVIEWED ON 5/19/99 GRADE: B
Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews"
http://www.sover.net/~ozus
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