The beginning of Eddie Constantine's Les femmes s'en balancent aka Dames Don't Care (1954) is a hoot if you can find it in English. (There used to be an English dub floating around free on YouTube but it looks like it's now on Amazon prime for $3 a watch. Not bad).
The beg clip setup (below in original French)
A Desert looking landscape. Aloe Vera. Parched ground. Southern Italian coast. Early Evening. You hear it long before you see it.
A 1950 Oldsmobile Futuramic 98 Convertible Coupe Deluxe. Horn blaring. Tools down the scrub land bordered two lane. Turns off and goes up the entrance road to the Casa Antica.
The Coupe Deluxe is dusty. Sun oxidized. A Dull finish. The clubs doorman runs over and lifts the hood.
The American Oldsmobile contains the burlesqued epitome of the "Ugly American" a loud mouth drunk. A V.O. tells us its FBI agent "Lemmy" Caution. The doorman pops the hood and pulls the horn connection plug. The blaring stops. Lemmy tells him not to touch anything else.
He then announces loudly that "Me? I'M gonna tank up going to tank up," he pivots and stumbles off towards the entrance leaving his lights on.
Cheap rumba music, heavy on bongos and horns.
Lemmy's style of drunk walk is the one where you lean in the direction you want to go and just when you are about to fall on your face you're legs and feet instinctively go into survival mode and propel you along while you lurch side to side grabbing support from whatever is within range.
The Casa Antica is a mostly alfresco night club, a high end kitsch version of an ancient beer garden set among fountains, faux Greco-Roman ruins of marble blocks, broken columns, and statuary. All that, is Frankenstein-ly attached to a bleak Italian Modern bar/kitchen building, with a full casino on the second floor.
Lemmy grips a broken pillar leans way out towards the maître d and waves a hello. The maître d steps over, leans into Lemmy and asks....
Maître d : Tabel for one sir?
Lemmy [waving him off while letting go and stumbling on to the dance floor yells out] : The best table. [walks into a couple on the dance floor and putting his hands on the mans back] The best whiskey. [he sits down at an empty table] And the best seat.
Lemmy watches his contact FBI agent Sagers. He's the one dancing with an older woman that Lemmy bumped into. The club waiter arrives with a glass, an ice bucket, and whiskey bottle. Lemmy grabs the bottle, the waiter stands there. Lemmy tells him "Ya getting in my way. Get lost"
Lemmy turns back to Sagers, Lemmy calls him an old gigolo.
(our Clip below here )
Sagers stops dancing and goes over to Lemmy.
Sagers : I didn't hear you right.
Lemmy : Sure you did, I called you an old gigolo
Sagers : You mind stepping out.
As Sagers turns Lemmy sticks out his leg and trips him. They fight. With Lemmy throwing wild haymakers. Eventually Sagers lands a right hook. Lemmy decked. Lemmy declares out loud that he "takes it all back," Sagers is a real man, and he'll buy him a drink. Lemmy grabs his whiskey bottle, tells the waiter to bring another, and then shakes Sagers hand.
Sagers and Lemmy sit at a table and before they can talk the same waiter arrives with another bottle. Lemmy stares at him and tells him again to get lost.
Lemmy is not drunk after all, and the fight was all a ruse. Lemmy tells Sagers his cover name is Selby Frayme. While Sagers tells Lemmy that he's been around too long and he thinks they know who he is.
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