Now Where Did the 7th Company Get to?

Now Where Did the 7th Company Get to? (Mais où est donc passée la septième compagnie ?)

Movie · 1973 · 3 people

Mais où est donc passée la septième compagnie ?, released in English as Now Where Did the 7th Company Get To?, is a 1973 French-Italian war comedy directed by Robert Lamoureux. Lamoureux also wrote the screenplay and appears in the film. A Gaumont production shot in French, it runs 95 minutes and is known in Germany as Wo bitte ist die 7. Kompanie geblieben?

The story takes place during the Battle of France, Germany's 1940 western campaign, in the spring of that year, and follows the fate of three French soldiers. The 7th signals company, hidden in a forest, is captured by the Germans. Only three soldiers who had gone out on reconnaissance escape captivity: Pithiviers, Tassin and Staff Sergeant Chaudard. Cut off from their unit, the three men, a squad lost somewhere on the front, try to find their way back to their own lines. The adventures they meet along the way make up the film's comedy.

The cast features Pierre Mondy, Jean Lefebvre and Aldo Maccione. Besides Lamoureux, Alain Doutey, Corinne Lahaye, Érik Colin, Florence Blot, Jacques Marin, Magali Vendeuil, Marcelle Ranson-Hervé, Michel Duchezeau, Paul Bisciglia and Paul Mercey also appear. A sequel followed in 1975, The Seventh Company Has Been Found.

DirectorRobert Lamoureux
Production companyGaumont Yapımevi

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Family Viewer Asks whether the whole household can watch it; cares about humour and heart.

A comedy about what happens to three soldiers cut off from their unit in the middle of a war. The subject is war, but the humour comes from the adventures along the way. Older children and teens can enjoy a laugh with it. Still, the backdrop of France in 1940 and a captured company may need some explaining for younger ones. At 95 minutes it fits an evening nicely.

Yeşilçam Nostalgic A viewer raised on the classics, looking for warm storytelling and strong acting.

One of the popular European comedies of the seventies, it chooses to tell the war not as a heroic epic but as the adventure of bewildered people. Three soldiers who escape capture only because they were out on reconnaissance when their hidden company was taken, now trying to get back to their own lines, make fertile ground for warm, human humour. That a sequel followed two years later suggests audiences grew fond of these soldiers. Even so, handling a subject as heavy as war in so light a tone may not sit right with every viewer. For anyone after an old-style comedy that looks at war with a smile, it is still a pleasant choice.

Cinephile Looks at script, editing and directing choices; keeps a distance from formula films.

Robert Lamoureux wrote, directed and appears in this war comedy, which rests on a simple but workable structure: three soldiers cut off from their unit and the road back to their own lines. That road-movie set-up lends itself to using every stop as a separate comic situation, but the same structure carries the risk of repetition that comes with an episodic flow. The rapport between the cast's leading names, Pierre Mondy, Jean Lefebvre and Aldo Maccione, is the main thing a comedy like this leans on. Turning a defeat like the Battle of France in the spring of 1940 into comedy is a bold choice; how far the film makes it satire and how far pure entertainment is left to the viewer.

These are not reader reviews: they are short editorial takes written from different viewer perspectives with AI assistance. Reader reviews are below.

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