1982 - ACE OF ACES, another entertaining Belmondo film

Ace of Aces kind of follows a pattern of lightweight but entertaining Belmond films that sort of began with Cartouche.  Some of his other adventure films in this vein were That Man from Rio, Up to His Ears and Le Magnifique.  Theywere all directed by Philippe de Broca. Ace of Aces had  Gerard Oury as the director, he was also a good man when it came to directing comedy.  All of these films helped establish Belmondo as a great action hero.

Ace of Aces is a period piece which finds Belmondo as the coach of the 1936 French Olympic boxing team.  While in Berlin, Belmondo gets involved with smuggling a Jewish family out of Berlin literally right under the nose of the Fuhrer, Adolph Hitler himself.

 

There are fights, car chases and lots of goofy humor especially with an actor in the dual role of Hitler's  love starved sister and Hitler himself,  It's a rather amusing bit of casting.  Through it all the unflappable Belmondo easily defeats all of the obstacles put in his way by the German Police the Gestapo and finally Hitler.

Belmondo was close to 50 years old when he made this film and it's impressive that he was clearly doing a lot of his own stunts.  The romantic lead for Belmondo is the actor Marie France Piser who was ten years younger than him.  This is the kind of likable action film that Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny should have attempted instead of the overlong mess that they released instead.

The running time is 100 minutes, the screenplay was by Gérard Oury and Danièle Thompson.,