It is now available on DVD (All Zone) in the remarkable collection Les joyaux de la télévision from Elephant Films.
In 1820, Louis XVIII is the king of France and Napoleon is in exile. The director of customs complains about smuggling at the border between France and Spain and he wants to end it once for all. The boldest smuggler of the Basque country region is named Gorri ("Red" in Basque) and he lives in the small town of Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port. Gorri operates with the complicity of its denizens. Melchior, the mayor, is Gorri's uncle and Maïder, the daughter of Juana the inkeeper, is the fiancee of the smuggler. Custom officer Lieutenant Caradoux and his troop arrive at Saint-Jean. Captain Guibert, a gendarme on special assignment, is there too. Ex-soldier of Napoleon, he dislikes Captain Mornard, the superior of Caradoux. Mornard wants to stop Gorri and his friends at any price.
Gorri is a "brigand justicier" like Mandrin or Vidocq and an adventurer like Till Eulenspiegel or Fanfan la Tulipe. The character was imagined by Jacques Celhay, a scriptwriter of Basque origin who wanted to write a historical novel about his region but died before he could finish it (1). Swiss scriptwriter and journalist Rodolphe-Maurice Arlaud and Jean Faurez, a director, used Celhay's work and his notes to write the scenario of Gorri le Diable. Jean Goumain and Pierre Neurisse helmed the 13 x 30-minute colour episodes, aired weekly in black and white on the Première chaîne (2) of French pubcaster ORTF (Office de radiodiffusion-télévision française) from August to October 1968. Pierre Neurisse co-produced Gorri le Diable with ORTF through Dovidis, the company he founded in 1950. For ORTF, Dovidis also made the historical drama Quand la liberté venait du ciel (1967) and the light-hearted detective series De nos envoyés spéciaux (1965).
Though Gorri and his men regularly make fun of both customs and gendarmerie, the smuggler shows his own sense of justice when necessary. He helps a Spanish shepherd recover his stolen sheep and saves the daughter of a marquis, kidnapped by some dangerous robbers. Our bouncing hero is portrayed by an actor whose family was from the Basque country: Robert Etcheverry, fresh from Le chevalier Tempête. This popular adventure series was the first French drama to be shown in colour, on ORTF's Deuxième chaîne in October 1967. In 1969 the BBC aired it in the U.K. as The Flashing Blade (3). Etcheverry confirmed his TV star status in the same genre with the Franco-German series Arpad le Tzigane/Arpad der Zigeuner (1973), Les Mohicans de Paris (1973) and its sequel Salvator et les Mohicans de Paris (1975). Maïder is played by Danièle Évenou, seen in the sitcom Quelle famille! (1965). The actress later became famous for Marie Pervenche (1984-1991).
Best known for his recurring role of Agent/Brigadier Coulomb from 1959 to 1969 in Les Cinq Dernières Minutes (1959-1996), Pierre Collet plays the likeable Captain Guibert. Singer Yves Mathieu is Gorri's best friend Father Ariste Etcheverry (4). With Elisabeth Wiener (Laurence), Frédéric Santaya (Manech), Arlette Mery (Juana), Abel Corty (Captain Mornard), Bernard Waver (Lieutenant Caradoux), Michel Duplaix (Les Barbouzes) as Brigadier Marjolet, René Alié (Marquis), Pierre Gualdi (Melchior), Julian Antonio Ramirez (Berrecotchéa), etc. Basque singer Iñaki Urtizberea is the "Garçon chanteur" who sums up the story in each episode. Gorri le Diable was filmed in 1967 entirely on location in the Basque country, including Hélette and Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port. The inhabitants of Hélette served as extras.
The music was composed by lyricist, composer and singer Charles Dumont. The end title song, titled "Air de Gorri", is performed by Jean-Paul Cara. It was composed by Charles Dumont (lyrics by André Salvet) and orchestrated by Bernard Gérard. The three-disc DVD set of Gorri le Diable from Elephant Films contains the 13 episodes of this Zorro in the Basque country (without the mask), an interesting photo gallery and the trailers of other titles from the collection Les joyaux de la télévision: the gripping French period drama Le trompette de la Bérésina (1966), La déesse d'or (1961), L'agence Nostradamus (1950), Chéri-Bibi (1974) and the historical anthology Les enigmes de l'histoire (1956).
(1) A tie-in book of Gorri le Diable by youth writer Pierre Lamblin (the Jacques Rogy books) was released in 1968. Lamblin wrote several tie-ins for RTF/ORTF series like Commando Spatial/Raumpatrouille Orion or Les Globe-Trotters.
(2) The Première chaîne only switched to colour in January 1975 after ORTF was dismantled and the 1st channel was renamed TF1.
(3) During the 1960s and 1970s, the BBC also aired ORTF series such as Belle et Sébastien (Belle and Sebastian), Thibaud ou les Croisades (Desert Crusader) or Les chevaliers du ciel (The Aeronauts).
(4) Yves Mathieu performed the title song of Quand la liberté venait du ciel.
https://fr.shopping.rakuten.com/offer/shop/10079839941/gorri-le-diable.html?sellerLogin=ElephantFilm
See also:
https://tattard2.blogspot.com/2023/02/le-trompette-de-la-beresina-elephant.html (Le trompette de la Bérésina)
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