The Gendarme Takes Off

The Gendarme Takes Off (Le Gendarme en balade) is a French comedy from 1970. Ludovic Cruchot and the rest of his brigade have been pushed into retirement to make room for younger officers. Cruchot, now living in his wealthy wife's castle, has grown restless and has little to occupy him. When word arrives that former colleague Fougasse has lost his memory after a blow to the head, the old gendarmes see a reason to reunite. They put their uniforms back on and set off for Saint-Tropez, where their return stirs up the town and puts them up against the new generation of officers.

The film is the seventh of thirteen features directed by Jean Girault in chronological order, following The Gendarme Gets Married in 1968 and preceding Jo in 1971. Richard Balducci, Girault and Jacques Vilfrid wrote the screenplay, and René Pignières produced it for SNC. Louis de Funès leads the cast as Cruchot, joined by Jean Lefebvre, Guy Grosso, Michel Modo, Nicole Vervil and France Rumilly among the twenty-nine credited performers. It runs ninety minutes.

Audience scores are modest rather than enthusiastic, with an IMDb rating of 6.5 from roughly 8,100 votes and a TMDB rating of 6.3 from 565 votes, numbers that suggest a steady following for the series more than broad acclaim.