LA CAGE AUX FOLLES III

France, 1985, 91 minutes, Colour.
Ugo Tognazzi, Michel Serrault, Michel Galabru, Stephane Audran.
Directed by Georges Lautner.

La Cage Aux Folles III is really a postscript to the earlier films. it seems to have been made to cash in on the popularity of the earlier films as well as on the success of the spectacular musical by Harvey Fierstein.

The film reunites the stars, Ugo Tognazzi still effective as Renato, Michel Serrault still mincing and screaming as Albin. Michel Galabru still looks mournful as Charrier. There are a few guest appearances including one by Stephane Audran. The direction is by Georges Lautner, who has made a number of thrillers over the decades.

The film has the old situations, the spectacle of the rehearsals and shows at the club, La Cage Aux Folles. There are the personnel, the dancers. The film focuses, as usual, on the relationship between Renato and Albin, the tensions. There is also the black maid. There is a send-up of Charrier and his place in the administration Nice, his Moral Order party. There is always the irony that Renato's son Laurent works for his father-in-law.

Farcical situations emerge when Albin has to dress as a man, go to Scotland to receive an inheritance, finds that the condition is that he have a child. The film plays a lot with homosexual and heterosexual jokes and difficulties in terms of parenting. Albin pretends that there is no inheritance - and falls foul of the consequences. He seeks advice from a doctor. His cousin Mortimer is in the background wanting the money.

He encounters Cindy, in an accident, and finds she is pregnant. It all works out happily, of course, with Albin receiving the money and Mortimer and Cindy getting together. There is an outrageously farcical sequence at the end with Albin dressed as a bride.

The film obviously continues the issues raised in the earlier films - but is only a pale reflection of their wit and humour.