Directing

Gérard Oury

Born 1919-04-29 · Paris, France

Gérard Oury (born Max-Gérard Houry Tannenbaum; 29 April 1919 – 20 July 2006) was a French film director, actor and writer. He is best known for a number of comedies he directed and co-wrote between the 1960s and 1980s, most notably The Sucker (1965), Don't Look Now... We're Being Shot At! (1966), The Brain (1969), The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob (1973), and Ace of Aces (1982). Max-Gérard Houry-Tannenbaum was the only son of Serge Tannenbaum, a violinist of Russian-Jewish origin, and French Jewish Marcelle Houry, a journalist and art critic. Tannenbaum was absent from the life of Oury and he was raised in an unobservant house of his mother and maternal grandmother Berthe Goldner. Oury studied at the Lycée Janson de Sailly and then at the National Conservatory of Dramatic Art. He became a member of the Comédie-Française before World War II, but fled with all his family (mother, grandmother and unofficial wife, actress Jacqueline Roman) to Switzerland to escape the anti-Jewish persecutions by the Vichy government. When in 1942 his daughter Danièle Thompson was born, his fatherhood was concealed, to avoid her classification as a Jew. After 1945 he returned to the liberated Paris and restarted his career as an actor, performing in the theatre and in supporting roles in the cinema. Oury became a movie director in 1959 (The Itchy Palm) and gained his first success in 1961 with Crime Does Not Pay (Le crime ne paie pas). Pairing André Bourvil and Louis de Funès as a comic duo, he burst into commercial filmmaking with 1965's The Sucker (Le corniaud). The film was entered into the 4th Moscow International Film Festival. The following year, Don't Look Now... We're Being Shot At! (La Grande Vadrouille) was even more successful, attracting the largest audiences ever in France (17.27 million admissions). This box-office record stood for decades, only surpassed in 1997 by Titanic from James Cameron. Oury shot the 1969 comedy Le Cerveau (The Brain) in English, starring David Niven in the lead role as a criminal mastermind. With actress Jacqueline Roman, he was the father of French writer Danièle Thompson and grandfather of actor/writer Christopher Thompson. He lived together with the French actress Michèle Morgan for the second half of his life. He died aged 87 in Saint-Tropez on 20 July 2006. Source: Article "Gérard Oury" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA.

Acting credits

Sur la route de la grande vadrouille poster
7.0

No synopsis available yet.

Sur la route de la grande vadrouille

2016

The Prize poster
6.7

A group of Nobel laureates descends on Stockholm to accept their awards. Among them is American novelist Andrew Craig, a former literary luminary now writing pulp detective stories to earn a living. Craig, who is infamous for his drinking and womanizing, formulates a wild theory that physics prize winner Dr. Max Stratman has been replaced by an impostor, embroiling Craig and his chaperone in a Cold War kidnapping plot.

The Prize

1963

The Journey poster
6.3

A Communist officer falls hard for a married woman trying to escape from Hungary.

The Journey

1959

Seventh Heaven poster
5.9

"Le septième ciel" became Raymond Bernard's last film; a black comedy about a female brewery owner who donates vast amounts of money to charitable causes. The funds to do this, she raises through her liaisons with wealthy gentlemen... who just "happen" to end up dead!

Seventh Heaven

1958

Belmondo: The Incorrigible poster
8.2

Charismatic and resourceful, seducer and daredevil, Jean-Paul Belmondo has always played his roles as he lived, at a thousand miles an hour. He had only one passion: to entertain the public with his smile, his naturalness, his energy, his stunts. But contrary to appearances, his destiny was full of pitfalls. This film lifts the veil on a founding childhood that allowed him to overcome many obstacles throughout his life thanks to the tutelary figures of his father and mother. Told from the inside with the help of his autobiography, interviews and unpublished archives, this epic story traces the career of this turbulent young actor who launched the New Wave in Breathless before becoming the popular Bebel, an indestructible and provocative vigilante. From film to film, this documentary paints an intimate portrait of a man who built himself up to reach the top: his triumphs but also his trials, his doubts, his secrets, his angers, his clowning, his disappointments or his personal dramas.

Belmondo: The Incorrigible

2022

Sea Devils poster
5.8

Gilliatt, a fisherman-turned-smuggler on the isle of Guernsey, agrees to transport a beautiful woman to the French coast in the year 1800. She tells him she hopes to rescue her brother from the guillotine. Gilliatt finds himself falling in love and so feels betrayed when he later learns this woman is a countess helping Napoleon plan an invasion of England. In reality, however, the "countess" is an English agent working to thwart this invasion. When Gilliatt finds this out, he returns to France to rescue the woman who's true purpose has been discovered by the French.

Sea Devils

1953

Without Leaving an Address poster
6.4

A woman in Paris hires a taxi driver to locate her ex-lover, father to her newborn child, who left her without leaving an address.

Without Leaving an Address

1951

Mr. Peek-a-Boo poster
6.1

Léon, a humble civil servant, has the unusual ability to walk through walls, however thick they are. One day, he falls madly in love with a charming hotel thief by the name of Suzan.

Mr. Peek-a-Boo

1951

They Who Dare poster
5.9

In Greece during the war a small group of British commandoes and patriots land on an island with orders to attack two airfields from which the Luftwaffe is threatening allied forces in Egypt. The island is crawling with troops, and even moving by night the men soon run into trouble.

They Who Dare

1954

The Sword and the Rose poster
6.4

Tells the story of Mary Tudor and her troubled path to true love. Henry VIII, for political reasons, determines to wed her to the King of France. She tries to flee to America with her love but is captured when she is "un-hatted" on board ship. In return for her consent to the marriage with France, Henry agrees to let her choose her second husband. When King Louis of France dies, Mary is kidnaped by the Duke of Buckingham. He tries to force her to marry him but she is rescued by her love in an exciting battle on the beach.

The Sword and the Rose

1953

The Heart of the Matter poster
6.8

Based on Graham Greene’s novel, a married colonial police chief struggles with his conscience when he has an affair with a younger woman.

The Heart of the Matter

1953

Antoine & Antoinette poster
6.2

1947, in France, Antoine and Antoinette, a young couple living in Paris, lead a monotonous existence: he works in a print shop while she is a shop assistant. But one evening, they regain hope: Antoine finds a winning lottery ticket in his girlfriend's handbag. He decides to cash it in, but loses his wallet. What follows is a series of twists and turns that redefine the couple's priorities while forcing them to remain optimistic.

Antoine & Antoinette

1947

A Man and a Woman: 20 Years Later poster
5.9

Jean-Louis and Anne have had their fling and separated. Now 20 years have passed. He is still dating various women. She is now a big-time director whose most recent film was a very expensive bomb. She comes up with the idea of making a romance based upon her fling with Jean-Louis. She contacts him to gain his permission. Jean-Louis is still in racing and goes away for a desert rally while she begins filming. She finds the mood of their romance difficult to recapture in her film.

A Man and a Woman: 20 Years Later

1986

Woman of the River poster
5.9

When peasant girl Nives is deserted by smuggler Gino Lodi, she betrays him to the police. Police officer Enzo Cinti, who loves Nives, traces her to the Po River cane-fields, where she is working as a cutter to support herself and an infant son, and warns her that Gino has escaped from prison and is seeking revenge. She rejects his offer to protect her. Gino finds Nives, mourning the drowning death of their son. He surrenders himself to the police and then walks at Nives' side in the funeral procession.

Woman of the River

1954

Back to the Wall poster
6.5

Rich industrialist Jacques Decret learns his wife Gloria is having an affair with a young actor. For revenge, he bombards her with anonymous letters, convincing her that her lover is the culprit while Gloria desperately seeks a way out.

Back to the Wall

1958

Father Brown poster
6.5

Works of art are disappearing, stolen by a master thief, a master of disguise. Father Brown has two goals: to catch the thief and to save his soul.

Father Brown

1954

The Fate of Two Queens poster
8.0

Anthology film in which Hedy Lamarr plays 2 queens during 2 different time periods. Ulmer directed the Genoveffa di Brabante part whereas Allégret was responsible for the empress Josephine section after he left due to artistic differences with Lamarr.

The Fate of Two Queens

1954

Here Is the Beauty poster
7.0

Melodrama of two struggling artists whose love for each other is thwarted.She has some success as a ballerina despite being wounded by him in a fit of jealousy. His career as a sculptor is stymied when he is arrested.

Here Is the Beauty

1950

Heroes and Sinners poster
8.1

A good cast smooths over the rough spots of Les Heros sont Fatigues. The scene is the African republic of Liberia, which in this film proves to be a stopping-off point for a number of shady characters. Yves Montand plays a French ex-pilot who becomes involved in a scheme to smuggle stolen diamonds. His cohorts include a Nazi collaborator, a German refugee, and the white mistress of a prominent Liberian. A romance develops between the ex-pilot and the aforementioned mistress. Meanwhile, one of the conspirators (Curt Jurgens) has a last-minute attack of conscience, effectively queering the deal. The steamier romantic passages in Les Heros sont Fatigues had to be trimmed for American consumption.

Heroes and Sinners

1955

Loves of Three Queens poster
9.0

At a wedding party involving three beautiful women, a young man should choose the most charming. But a professor intervenes to prevent the verdict, remembering the troubles caused by Paris in a similar situation.

Loves of Three Queens

1954

The Best Part poster
7.1

Philippe Perrin, a young engineer passionate about his work, leads the construction of a huge dam in the High Alps. Like all the men who work on the building site, he gives the best part of himself. Unfortunately, his health deteriorates but he refuses to follow the doctor's orders as well as the advice of Micheline, a young nurse who has fallen in love with him. However, driven by the evolution of his illness, Philippe finally makes up his mind to go down to the valley for a treatment. On the very day of his departure though, a young Arab worker gets killed in a rock crusher...

The Best Part

1955

No artwork available
9.0

The life story of famed French aviatrix Helene Boucher is detailed in Horizons sans fin (Endless Horizons). Giselle Pascal stars as Boucher, who is first seen in 1930, leaving her millinery shop behind in favor of the wild blue yonder. Though the world of aviation was still essentially an all-male one (despite England's Amy Johnson and America's Amelia Earhart), Boucher perseveres, eventually breaking all existing male and female speed and height records. A bit slow on the uptake in the dramatic scenes, the film soars (no pun intended) during the aerial sequences. Horizons san Fin was the winner of the Catholic Award at the 1953 Cannes Film Festival.

Endless Horizons

1953

Jo la Romance poster
7.0

For love, the singer Georges Hyverlin gives up his profession to work with his father-in-law in his car factory. When the passion for song takes him back, he manages to resume his career thanks to the support of his wife Martine.

Jo la Romance

1949

House of Secrets poster
6.4

Police in Paris recruit an English ship's officer (Michael Craig) to help trap counterfeiters by joining them.

House of Secrets

1956

Behind the camera

Don't Look Now... We're Being Shot At! poster
7.9

During World War II, two French civilians and a downed British Bomber Crew set out from Paris to cross the demarcation line between Nazi-occupied Northern France and the South. From there they will be able to escape to England. First, they must avoid German troops – and the consequences of their own blunders.

Don't Look Now... We're Being Shot At!

1966

Don't Look Now... We're Being Shot At! poster
7.9

During World War II, two French civilians and a downed British Bomber Crew set out from Paris to cross the demarcation line between Nazi-occupied Northern France and the South. From there they will be able to escape to England. First, they must avoid German troops – and the consequences of their own blunders.

Don't Look Now... We're Being Shot At!

1966

Come Dance with Me! poster
6.1

Handsome dentist Herve Dandieu, temporarily separated from his delectable new wife Virginie by a lovers' tiff, is picked up by sexy dance teacher Anita Flores. Sensing trouble, Virginie follows him, only to find him circumstantially incriminated in murder. Soon, the dance school has a gorgeous new instructress, whose slightly scatterbrained attempts to clear her husband's name confuse both police and suspects...and bringing potential danger.

Come Dance with Me!

1959

The Sucker poster
7.4

In this Franco-Italian gangster parody, a shopkeeper on his way to an Italian holiday suffers a crash that totals his car. The culprit can only compensate his ruined trip by driving an American friend's car from Naples to Bordeaux, but as it happens to be filled with such contraband as stolen money, jewelry and drugs, the involuntary and unwitting companions in crime soon attract all but recreational attention from the "milieu".

The Sucker

1965

The Sucker poster
7.4

In this Franco-Italian gangster parody, a shopkeeper on his way to an Italian holiday suffers a crash that totals his car. The culprit can only compensate his ruined trip by driving an American friend's car from Naples to Bordeaux, but as it happens to be filled with such contraband as stolen money, jewelry and drugs, the involuntary and unwitting companions in crime soon attract all but recreational attention from the "milieu".

The Sucker

1965

Delusions of Grandeur poster
7.4

Don Sallust is the minister of the King of Spain. Being disingenuous, hypocritical, greedy and collecting the taxes for himself, he is hated by the people he oppresses. Accused by The Queen, a beautiful princess Bavarian, of having an illegitimate child to one of her maids of honor, he was stripped of his duties and ordered to retire to a monastery.

Delusions of Grandeur

1971

Delusions of Grandeur poster
7.4

Don Sallust is the minister of the King of Spain. Being disingenuous, hypocritical, greedy and collecting the taxes for himself, he is hated by the people he oppresses. Accused by The Queen, a beautiful princess Bavarian, of having an illegitimate child to one of her maids of honor, he was stripped of his duties and ordered to retire to a monastery.

Delusions of Grandeur

1971

The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob poster
7.4

In this riot of frantic disguises and mistaken identities, Victor Pivert, a blustering, bigoted French factory owner, finds himself taken hostage by Slimane, an Arab rebel leader. The two dress up as rabbis as they try to elude not only assasins from Slimane's country, but also the police, who think Pivert is a murderer. Pivert ends up posing as Rabbi Jacob, a beloved figure who's returned to France for his first visit after 30 years in the United States. Adding to the confusion are Pivert's dentist-wife, who thinks her husband is leaving her for another woman, their daughter, who's about to get married, and a Parisian neighborhood filled with people eager to celebrate the return of Rabbi Jacob.

The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob

1973

The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob poster
7.4

In this riot of frantic disguises and mistaken identities, Victor Pivert, a blustering, bigoted French factory owner, finds himself taken hostage by Slimane, an Arab rebel leader. The two dress up as rabbis as they try to elude not only assasins from Slimane's country, but also the police, who think Pivert is a murderer. Pivert ends up posing as Rabbi Jacob, a beloved figure who's returned to France for his first visit after 30 years in the United States. Adding to the confusion are Pivert's dentist-wife, who thinks her husband is leaving her for another woman, their daughter, who's about to get married, and a Parisian neighborhood filled with people eager to celebrate the return of Rabbi Jacob.

The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob

1973

Ace of Aces poster
7.1

In this action comedy the French boxer Jo Cavalier is charmed on the train to Berlin for the Olympics in Hitler's Germany by the little boy Simon Rosenblum who asks his autograph; when it turns out his adorable young fan is a Jewish orphan in danger of persecution, he risks his one shot at Olympic glory to save Simon and his family, helped only by a German officer-gentleman who became his friend in World War I, by an adventurous escape to Switzerland, Nazi troops on their heals and braving impossible odds in roller coaster-style.

Ace of Aces

1982

Ace of Aces poster
7.1

In this action comedy the French boxer Jo Cavalier is charmed on the train to Berlin for the Olympics in Hitler's Germany by the little boy Simon Rosenblum who asks his autograph; when it turns out his adorable young fan is a Jewish orphan in danger of persecution, he risks his one shot at Olympic glory to save Simon and his family, helped only by a German officer-gentleman who became his friend in World War I, by an adventurous escape to Switzerland, Nazi troops on their heals and braving impossible odds in roller coaster-style.

Ace of Aces

1982

The Brain poster
7.3

Arthur and Anatole are two little robbers. They want to rob money, money that will travel in a special train from Paris to Bruxelles. They don't know that other people have planned to do the same thing.

The Brain

1969

The Brain poster
7.3

Arthur and Anatole are two little robbers. They want to rob money, money that will travel in a special train from Paris to Bruxelles. They don't know that other people have planned to do the same thing.

The Brain

1969

Umbrella Coup poster
6.9

Grégoire Lecomte, the unlucky actor anxious to find a "real job", goes to take a screen test for a role of a killer, but gets to mafiosi by mistake. He takes their don for a producer, and they mistake him for a hitman with whom they had an appointment. Deluded Lecomte signs contract with them. He is supposed to kill gun dealer Otto Krampe at his birthday party in Saint-Tropez by piercing him with a cap of the umbrella with a built-in syringe with potassium cyanide. Lecomte is not aware that it has to be a real murder.

Umbrella Coup

1980

Umbrella Coup poster
6.9

Grégoire Lecomte, the unlucky actor anxious to find a "real job", goes to take a screen test for a role of a killer, but gets to mafiosi by mistake. He takes their don for a producer, and they mistake him for a hitman with whom they had an appointment. Deluded Lecomte signs contract with them. He is supposed to kill gun dealer Otto Krampe at his birthday party in Saint-Tropez by piercing him with a cap of the umbrella with a built-in syringe with potassium cyanide. Lecomte is not aware that it has to be a real murder.

Umbrella Coup

1980

Out of It poster
6.5

The lawyer is visiting a prison to meet with a violent criminal who has been condemned to death. During the visit, things turn bad, there is a riot where prisoners escape and the criminal escapes taking a lawyer hostage.

Out of It

1978

Out of It poster
6.5

The lawyer is visiting a prison to meet with a violent criminal who has been condemned to death. During the visit, things turn bad, there is a riot where prisoners escape and the criminal escapes taking a lawyer hostage.

Out of It

1978

Witness in the City poster
6.3

Industrialist Pierre Verdier kills his mistress Jeanne Ancelin by throwing her off a train. Her husband, Ancelin, decides to take revenge on his wife's murderer, who has been acquitted by justice.

Witness in the City

1959

Vanille fraise poster
5.2

Husband finds out that his wife is a secret agent and that she has a handsome partner.

Vanille fraise

1989

Vanille fraise poster
5.2

Husband finds out that his wife is a secret agent and that she has a handsome partner.

Vanille fraise

1989

The Thirst for Gold poster
5.5

Urbain Donnadieu's first love is money. It's also his second, third and fourth love. The only reason he married - a tax inspector named Fleurette - was to avoid a fine for tax evasion. For several years, he has been stealing money from his construction company and buying gold bars with his ill-gotten gains. His plan is to deposit all this wealth in a Swiss Bank, where neither his wife - whom he is about to divorce - nor the French State can get at it. Accompanied by his money-grabbing Granny Zézette, Urbain heads off for Switzerland, with his gold concealed in the walls of a model house on the back of a trailer. Unfortunately, his scheme is threatened by his wife and his embittered ex-chauffeur, who are determined to get his money at any cost...

The Thirst for Gold

1993

The Thirst for Gold poster
5.5

Urbain Donnadieu's first love is money. It's also his second, third and fourth love. The only reason he married - a tax inspector named Fleurette - was to avoid a fine for tax evasion. For several years, he has been stealing money from his construction company and buying gold bars with his ill-gotten gains. His plan is to deposit all this wealth in a Swiss Bank, where neither his wife - whom he is about to divorce - nor the French State can get at it. Accompanied by his money-grabbing Granny Zézette, Urbain heads off for Switzerland, with his gold concealed in the walls of a model house on the back of a trailer. Unfortunately, his scheme is threatened by his wife and his embittered ex-chauffeur, who are determined to get his money at any cost...

The Thirst for Gold

1993

Ghost with Driver poster
5.0

A chauffeur for a corrupt CEO, and a few hours later, his boss himself, are killed by the industrialist's associate. But their ghosts remain on Earth, and they try to tell the millionaire's teenage son the identity of the killer.

Ghost with Driver

1996

The Vengeance of the Winged Serpent poster
4.7

An international intrigue with terrorists threatening to blow up the presidents of the most powerful countries.

The Vengeance of the Winged Serpent

1984