Les Charlots, known as The Crazy Boys in the English-speaking world, was a group of French musicians, singers, comedians and film actors, who were popular in the 1960s, 1970s, and early 1980s.
The group was active first from 1965 to 1966 as "Les Problèmes", under which name they made an album with the French pop singer Antoine. They renamed themselves Les Charlots, starting as a comedy music band and evolving into actors; they remained active from 1966 to 1997, then again briefly from 2008 to 2011 (as a duo). Charlots is slang for "clowns" or "doofuses", a person who lack of seriousness, a "clown" and derives from Charlie Chaplin, whose character of The Tramp was called Charlot (a diminutive for Charles) in France.
Their light-hearted comedy style was influenced by the style of popular Italian group I Brutos and by the anarchic humor of the Marx Brothers.
The original five members were Gérard Rinaldi (vocals, saxophone, accordion), Jean Sarrus (bass, backing vocals), Gérard Filippelli, a.k.a. "Phil" (guitar, backing vocals), Luis Rego (rhythm guitar, piano, backing vocals) and Jean-Guy Fechner (drums, backing vocals). Filippelli was nicknamed "Phil" as there were two "Gérards" in the group. The group was later reduced to four members, then to three, following Rego's and Fechner's departures; following Rinaldi's departure in the mid-1980s, he was replaced by Richard Bonnot in the group's later years.
Creation of Les Problèmes
Rinaldi and Sarrus were musicians in various short-lived groups ("Les Rebelles" and "Les Tarés", for Sarrus) and they first met in 1963. They became friends and decided to form a rock band, even though at the time, Rinaldi was more into jazz than rock. In 1964, they were joined by Luis Rego, then in 1965 by Gérard Filippelli and Donald Rieubon on drums.
In 1965, they became the backing band for singer Antoine under the name of "Les Problèmes" ("The Problems") or sometimes "Antoine et les Problèmes" ("Antoine and the Problems"). They backed him on two his greatest hits, "Les Elucubrations d'Antoine" and "Je Dis ce que je pense, je vis comme je veux".
In 1965, while he was vacationing in Portugal (his home country), Luis Rego was imprisoned for a few months under the Salazar regime, for desertion and rebellion. During Luis' incarceration, Rinaldi wrote "Ballade à Luis Rego, Prisonnier Politique" ("Ballad to Luis Rego, Political Prisoner"), a popular song that the group often played on stage. He was replaced on stage and in the studio by guitarist Jacques Dautriche (also a singer under the alias Sullivan). Rego rejoined the band as soon as he was released.
In 1966, drummer Rieubon was called up for military service and left the band. He was replaced by William Ollivier until the band became Les Charlots.
Success as Les Charlots
After a spoof of Antoine's "Je Dis ce que je pense, je vis comme je veux" released under the alias "Les Charlots" became a novelty hit, their manager convinced them to stick to comedy and switch names for good. Except for drummer Ollivier who chose to stay with Antoine. He was replaced by Jean-Guy Fechner, brother of the group's manager Christian Fechner. For their first tour they hired Dautriche and Ollivier as back-up musicians. They became instantly extremely popular for their humoristic and parodic songs like "Si tu ne veux pas payer d'impôts", "Merci Patron", "On n'est Pas là Pour se Faire Engueuler", "Paulette la Reine des Paupiettes", "Berrystock", "Sois Erotique" (a parody of Serge Gainsbourg's "Je t'aime Moi Non Plus"), "Je Suis Trop Beau" (a parody of Jacques Dutronc), "Berry Blues", "Albert le Contractuel",, "Cet été c'était toi", "Ouvre la Fenêtre", "Pétronille Tu Sens la Menthe", "Elle Avait du Poil au Ventre", "Hey Max" (a parody of Johnny Halliday's cover of "Hey Joe"), "Elle a Gagné le Yoyo en Bois du Japon (avec la Ficelle du Même Métal)", "Le Trou de Mon Quai", "La Biguine au Biniou", "Le Chou Farci", "Histoire Merveilleuse", "Chagrin d'labour", "C'est trop, c'est trop", "Ah Viens!", "Derrière Chez Moi" and "L'Apérobic".
Most of the songs were written by Rinaldi, Sarrus or Rego. Rinaldi was the main singer and the four others sang backing vocals.
After they left Antoine, they toured a lot from 1966 to 1970, first as the opening act of prestigious artists like Johnny Hallyday, Françoise Hardy, Sylvie Vartan, Claude François and even The Rolling Stones. One day, as The Rolling Stones were late for their gig, Les Charlots started playing "Satisfaction". Later in the evening, Sarrus said to Mick Jagger that, if they wanted, the Rolling Stones could play "Paulette la Reine des Paupiettes". Jagger politely refused.
In the late '60s, Les Charlots began to appear in comedy sketches on French television, most notably in an episode of satirical television cartoon Les Shadoks, with Jean Yanne and popular sitcom Les Saintes Chéries.
In 1968, Rolling Stone magazine named them the best French rock musicians.
In 1969, they recorded a cover album of songs by Boris Vian.
Film career
With their increasing popularity as a genuine rock and comedy group, they received many offers to appear in films. Producer Michel Ardan hired them for their first film "because his children had seen them on television and found them very funny..." Their first film, released in 1970, was La Grande Java with comedian Francis Blanche. They played five members of a rugby team whose manager stole the money. The film wasn't very good, mostly due to the fact that Les Charlots weren't actors and didn't get along with director Philippe Clair (often considered to be one of the worst French directors ever). But surprisingly, La Grande Java was a hit with teen audiences. On the set, Les Charlots met a first AD named Claude Zidi, who later directed them in their best films.
The following films, Les Bidasses en folie (1971), Les Fous du Stade (1972), Les Charlots Font l'Espagne (1972), Le Grand Bazar (1973), Les Bidasses s'en vont en Guerre (1974) were among the group's successful comedy films. Between 1971 and 1976, the group appeared in eight films, several of which achieved commercial success in France and other countries. According to Gérard Rinaldi, the films' appeal was partly due to their visual style of comedy, which allowed audiences to understand the plots without necessarily speaking French.
About their films, Les Charlots have often said that their only criteria were the glamorous locations, warm weather and good food. None of them originally intended to become actors and they didn't think their movie career would last. They just started out of curiosity, with no ambition to become actors whatsoever. Acting in films was just the icing on the cake. But they had this youthful energy that young people of the time connected to, and after their first film became a hit, they caught the acting bug. Years after their acting debuts with Les Charlots, Gérard Rinaldi and Luis Rego pursued successful solo acting careers outside of the band.
They continued to appear on stage and record albums but movies became their main activity in the '70s.
Les Charlots wrote and performed the songs and music for most of their films.
The films focused on the group's anti-authoritarian lifestyle and free-spirited youthfulness, their friendship, freedom, love of music and pretty girls, their laziness towards work, their numerous blunders and their hatred of authority figures like the army. The films depicted the members in absurd situations and visual gags.
In Les Bidasses en Folie (1971) and sequel Les Bidasses s'en vont en Guerre (1974), they played young musicians drafted in the army, trying their best to be sent to the regiment jail rather than taking part in the manoeuvres. Their nemesis was a bald and severe sergeant named Bellec (played by character actor Jacques Seiler) who had to endure his new recruits' blunders and was ultimately always ridiculed by the boys.
In their biggest hit, Les Fous du Stade (1972) they played reluctant athletes in the Olympics.
In Le Grand Bazar (1973), they were factory workers, helping their shopkeeper friend Emile (Michel Galabru) fight against a brand new modern supermarket.
In the big budget parody From Hong Kong with Love (1975), they reluctantly replaced a recently deceased 007 when Queen Elizabeth II is abducted by villain Mickey Rooney... For the occasion, actors Bernard Lee and Lois Maxwell, cameoed in their roles from the 007 franchise as M and Miss Moneypenny respectively.
In Les Charlots Contre Dracula (1980), they became vampire hunters.
Rinaldi usually played the straight good-looking guy and the others were his goofy, faithful friends. Supporting actors like Jacques Seiler, Pierre Gualdi, André Badin, Paul Préboist, Roger Carel, Gérard Croce and renowned accordionist Aimable appeared in many of their films. They were directed four times by Claude Zidi who started his directing career with them.
They usually kept their real-life first names (Gérard, Jean, Phil, Luis and Jean-Guy) in the movies, except in the big-budget musketeers parody (1974) and sequel (1974) in which they played the famous musketeers' valets, who were revealed to be the true heroes of the classic Alexandre Dumas story.
Departures of Rego and Fechner
At the height of their success, Rego left the band in 1971, just before the release of their second film, Les Bidasses en Folie to focus on a (successful) solo career as an actor. The split was amicable and Rego later rejoined his friends for two movies : Le Retour des Bidasses en Folie (1983) and Le Retour des Charlots (1992). Years later, Rego said he regretted his decision because the following Charlots films were extremely successful. His main reason for leaving was that he felt the scripts for their films or for their sketches on television worked better with a four men team than with five and he sometimes felt a little lost or underappreciated in the middle of the others. He appeared in massive hit Les Bronzés in 1978.
Jean-Guy Fechner left the band in June 1976, a few months after the release of the expensive Bond parody From Hong Kong with Love. Following a dispute about unpaid royalties and disagreements about artistic choices, Les Charlots decided not to renew their contract with producer and manager Christian Fechner (Jean-Guy's brother). Les Charlots wanted to star in a satirical film written for them by auteur Bertrand Blier, named "Charlots, Charlottes", but Christian Fechner bought the rights to the script and threw it in the trash. Jean-Guy was torn between staying in the band or loyalty to his brother. He ultimately left the band.
At the time of the split with Fechner, Les Charlots were supposed to appear alongside comedy legend Louis De Funès in another film by Claude Zidi. The project was to be called "Merci Patron", after their hit song of the same name. Following their acrimonious split with Christian Fechner, the film was rewritten for emerging comedian Coluche (who had appeared with them in a small part in Le Grand Bazar), renamed L'Aile ou la Cuisse and became a huge hit, launching Coluche's film career.
With no producer and their legal issues with Christian Fechner unresolved, the band went on hiatus until 1978 and the release of their first film as a trio, the mediocre Et Vive la Liberté!
Les Charlots as a trio