That Riviera Touch

That Riviera Touch - 1966 | 98 mins | Comedy | Colour

The Production Team

Director: Cliff Owen.
Producer: Hugh Stewart.
Script: Peter Blackmore, S.C. Green and R.M. Hills
Cinematography: Otto Heller.
Editing: Gerry Hambling.
Art Direction: John Blezard.
Costume Design: Anna Duse.
Makeup Department: Bob Lawrence.
Sound Department: Len Shilton, C.C. Stevens and Les Wiggins.
Original Music: Ron Goodwin.

The Cast

Eric Morecambe - Eric Simpson
Ernie Wise - Ernest Clark
Clive Cazes - Renard
Paul Danquah - Hassim
George Eugeniou - Marcel
Michael Forrest - Pierre
Peter Jeffrey - Mauron
Gerald Lawson - Coco
Suzanne Lloyd - Claudette
Armand Mestral - Inspector Duval

Plot Synopsis

A routine comedy that was the second film for TV comedians Morecambe and Wise, written by another double-act, the duo’s regular writers Sid Green and Dick Hills. Despite many colourful shots of the Côte d'Azur and a riotous closing sequence involving a helicopter and water skis the duo are unable to sustain feature length narratives and ultimately the film is lacking in laughs.

After chucking in their humdrum jobs as London traffic wardens, rather than face the inevitable sack for trying to give the Queen a parking ticket, Eric and Ernie decide to splash out on a vacation on the French Riviera. However, no sooner have they landed at the airport than a gang of jewel thieves have identified them as potential stooges and redirected them to a rundown French villa rather than their luxury holiday hotel. The crooks intend to hide some stolen emeralds in the fuel tank of Eric and Ern’s beat-up old banger and despatch seductive moll Claudette to seduce the twosome and ensure they don’t buy a sporty new car when Eric wins big at the casino. Meanwhile, both the police and a rival gang of jewel thieves are seeking the concealed emeralds.