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this is the best of the three attempts to film this story


The O'Henry version should have been a winner. Fred Allen and Oscar Levant, both gifted comedians of the wry variety, should have crammed the film with chuckles even though their small colleague Lee Aaker was not up to his important role. But somehow the whole thing never really came together. For me at least it's a tossup between this and the Ransom of Haley Joel Osment which wasn't that good either. Apparently this clever little story is more difficult to bring to the screen than it appears.

But if you >really< want to see a 5-star version of this quintessentially American story you will have to cast your glance across the ocean, to France. Fernandel, France's most famous comedian, joined dramatic actor Gino Cervi in 1959 to make up a criminal duo on a par with the later, more famous 'wet bandits' of Home Alone -- and the gifted seven-year-old known as Papouf easily outshone his American rivals for the role of Red Chief. The film was called 'Le Grand Chef' but seems also to have an English name: 'Gangster Boss.' Since it has an English name there must have been an English language version but I have never been able to track it down. I wish I could because my French is only adequate to grasp about one sentence out of every three. If anyone here can find a copy please let me know.

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