À la guerre comme à la guerre (1972, France)

A light comedy set in the early twentieth century. The hero is an officer in the Austrian Red Hussars, and when the First World War breaks out, there is war against the Russia, and he must go to the front. But he is more interested in finding pretty girls to seduce than fighting. When he gets separated from his unit, he is trapped in a farm and the Cossacks are searching the place. Finding some female clothes on a washing line he dresses as a female and makes good his escape.

The Austrian general and his wife arrive by car and rescue him, but the general has amorous designs on what he thinks is a farm girl -- although his eyesight must be pretty bad -- to me he looked like a man in a frock.

Our hero makes good his escape in the general's car.

Separated entirely now from his comrades, he meets up with the general's wife a second time, and this time she helps him to dress as a more believable woman (although a shave would have been a useful idea) and they escape together by car. When they run out of petrol they stop at a peasant's farm, and the man there has to be fought off by our hero.

It's all pretty silly stuff and played strictly for laughs without much attempt at reality.

The film was released dubbed in English as War is Hell and also War is War.

HF June 2007

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