Usually Gigot wore an old army overcoat and hat. Perhaps he was one of the many soldiers to fight in WWI. He could have become shell-shocked and undergone a hysterical paralysis of his voice. As a soldier in that war he would have seen far too much violence for such a gentle soul as he.
Having been though so much, the part of his mind that controls speech simply shut down.
Good Point, I have never seen much back story on this film, Gleason wrote it, would be interesting to find out if this was the case, or if he just found the old clothes, who knows, was a great movie though
shareJackie Gleason made this picture because he want to shoot a story in France but he couldn't speak the language. He got around it by playing a mute. This was a magnificent role for him which stamped him as a serious actor along with Minnesota Fats and his role in 'Requiem for a Heavyweight and not just a loud-mouthed farcical buffoon character like Ralph Kramden or the Sheriff in Smokey & the bandit.
Your guess that he was a shell-shocked French World War 1 soldier is pretty good.
I saw this movie in the theatre when I was about 8 yrs old. My impression was that he had been a soldier not only from his old uniform and hat he wore but also he had the survival skills to scrounge and survive the best way he could almost as if he had learned it in the trenches. I remember the hovel he lived in was underground, right? It WAS a very good movie and very hard to find. I saw it on tv about 8 yrs ago and recorded it on vhs.
share>> shell-shocked French World War 1 soldier is pretty good. <<
??
First of all the coat is the wrong cut.
Secondly, the French Army wore Horizon Blue uniforms at that time, not brown.
End of story.
I felt he was just a poor "loser" in the village — that everyone who knew him had "always known him." Of course, no strong implications of Gigot's life are made in the film, so any guess is as good as any other.
shareIn the film, his landlady says that she didn't know much about him, but that he just showed up on her doorstep one day. He may have just been a drifter after the war who needed a place to call his own.
shareEven if you're right, despite it, it's the impression it gives. I came to the same conclusion myself considering his age and the overall look of his clothes. If we were to hypothesize here, he would likely have sold off any uniform and/or medals he had long ago to survive, if not feed the kids and animals. The coat and hat he has now might be the closest he can manage at preserving what dignity he has left.
shareTrue I had thought of that as well, knowing the uniforms of the French army in WW1 were blue but I just chalked that up to one of Hollywood's poetic licenses same as an American GMC half track with an iron cross on it. He strikes me as a man who has seen and lived through the horror of war (possibly losing his voice to a gas attack) but now he has survived and with it came a whole new appreciation of life. Despite his being down and out, he thanks God he has come through it all alive and is able to appreciate the simple things which most of us take for granted.
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