Le Gendarme à New York

Le Gendarme à New York (released in English as The Gendarme in New York and in Soviet distribution as Monsieur Cruchot in New York) is a 1965 French-Italian comedy directed by Jean Girault and the second film in the Gendarme series begun with Le Gendarme de Saint-Tropez (1964). Louis de Funès stars as marshal-of-the-loges Ludovic Cruchot, whose Saint-Tropez gendarmerie brigade is sent to New York to represent France at an international gendarmerie congress, while his daughter Nicole stows away aboard the ocean liner France against his orders.^{1 • 2}

Cast and crew

Louis de Funès plays Ludovic Cruchot, Michel Galabru plays adjutant Gerber, and the brigade is completed by Christian Marin (Merlot), Jean Lefebvre (Fougasse), Guy Grosso (Tricard), and Michel Modo (Berlicot). Geneviève Grad plays Nicole; Mario Pisu plays the Italian adjutant Renzo, and France Rumilly appears as the nun Sœur Clotilde.³ Edmond Séchan was director of photography, Albert Jurgenson the editor, and Timmy Everett the choreographer.³

The shoot marked the beginning of a conflict between Jean Lefebvre and Louis de Funès: after Lefebvre gained notice in Les Tontons flingueurs, de Funès pressed to shorten his role, which displeased the actor.²

Production and the Gendarmerie's cooperation

After the popular and international success of the first film, released in September 1964, Girault and de Funès moved quickly on a sequel, and the production company SNC again asked the Gendarmerie nationale for assistance.¹⁰ The Service historique de la Défense preserves the April 1965 request file, which contains the original synopsis, a rewritten scene submitted for approval, and the Armées ministry's authorization. The Gendarmerie not only validated the scenario in the minister's name but worked on the dialogue itself, and it supplied, on a paid basis, shooting permits near the Saint-Tropez brigade and the ministry, four road-police vehicles with drivers, an escort of six motorcyclists in full dress for the final scene, and the material to dress a realistic brigade interior.¹⁰

Filming ran from May 1 to July 10, 1965, on locations in Saint-Tropez, at the Paris Studios Cinéma in Billancourt, and in New York City itself; a 13 May 1965 television news item filmed de Funès, Galabru, and Grad being interviewed on a New York street during the shoot.^{11 • 12}

Reception and box office

The film drew 5,495,000 admissions in France, making it the fourth most-seen film of 1965, a total lower than the first film's roughly 8 million but commercially strong.^{5 • 2} AlloCiné places its worldwide total at about 5.5 million admissions, behind Le Gendarme de Saint-Tropez (8 million) and ahead of nothing, with Le Gendarme se marie (1968) later reaching 7 million.² Across the whole series, the six Gendarme films released between 1964 and 1982 accumulated 35.4 million cinema admissions in France.¹³

Contemporary critics were divided. Edmond Gilles in L'Humanité found the film "hilarious" while deploring that it remained far from the "really French style of comedy" he wished for; Louis Chauvet's review in Le Figaro of 3 November 1965 mixed nationalism with a jab at auteur cinema.¹⁴ Later assessments have been mixed as well: Télérama wrote that "even modernized, the comique troupier has lost its salt," and the CinéDweller critic judged the script to lose its way once the gendarmes land in America, with the West Side Story dance sequence falling flat, while crediting de Funès and Galabru as remarkable.^{13 • 5} On aggregate measures, the film holds 6.4/10 on IMDb (about 9,400 votes) and 2.6/5 among AlloCiné spectators (about 4,800 notes).^{6 • 7}

Television life and legacy

The film has remained a fixture of French television. In summer 2024, M6 drew 2.1 million viewers with the first Gendarme film and 1.3 million the following week with Le Gendarme à New York; in 2020, during the COVID-19 lockdown, episodes on M6 drew between 1.5 and 3.5 million viewers each.¹³ A restoration by SND has been screened at the Cinémathèque française, and the film is available for rent or purchase on French VOD platforms including Canal VOD, Rakuten TV, Apple TV Store, and Pathé Home.^{3 • 15}

Geneviève Grad, who played Nicole in this film and the first, died in November 2024 at the age of 80.²

References

1. Le Gendarme à New York, fiche œuvre, CNC Visas et Classification
2. Le Gendarme à New York, film 1965, AlloCiné
3. Le Gendarme à New York (Jean Girault, 1965), La Cinémathèque française
4. Le Gendarme à New York, L'Officiel des spectacles
5. Le gendarme à New York : la critique du film, CinéDweller
6. Le Gendarme à New York (1965), Évaluations, IMDb
7. Critiques spectateurs, Le Gendarme à New York, AlloCiné
8. Le gendarme à New York, Télérama
9. Dernières critiques du film Le Gendarme à New York, AlloCiné
10. Dossier de demande de concours pour le film « Le gendarme à New-York », avril 1965, Service historique de la Défense
11. The Gendarme in New York (1965), Filming & production, IMDb
12. Tournage du film "Le Gendarme à New York", INA, JT 13H du 25 mai 1965
13. Depuis 60 ans, ces films sont méprisés, mais tout le monde les a vus, L'Internaute
14. Marie (2000), thesis on French film criticism, University of Warwick
15. Regarder Le Gendarme à New-York en streaming complet, JustWatch

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026

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