La Tour, prends garde! (La Tour, Watch Out!) is a 1958 French-Italian-Yugoslavian historical adventure / swashbuckler film directed by Georges Lampin and written by Denys de La Patellière and Claude Accursi.
During the Seven Years' War, French King Louis XV (Jean Lara) is allied to Bavaria and Prussia against a coalition of England, Austria and Ottoman Turkey led by Louis' cousin, Empress Maria Theresa (Sonja Hlebs). French stage actor Henri La Tour (Jean Marais), who came near the battlefields to entertain French troops, finds himself falsely accused of murdering the duke of Saint-Severs (a prominent military officer close to the king). While he's on the run, he sets out to protect the duke's secret daughter and her inheritance.
Film debut of 13-year-old Jean-Pierre Léaud, who plays Pierrot. See also Le Bossu, another swashbuckler film with many similar plots beats to this one, released the following year and also starring Jean Marais.
La Tour, prends garde! provides examples of the following tropes:
- Artistic License – History:
- There was no "battle of Dreimahl" during the Seven Years War. There's no location with that name, for that matter.
- The shipment of women to North America in order to improve the demography of French colonies wasn't made of enslaved women, and took place under King Louis XIV, not Louis XV.
- Attending Your Own Funeral: La Tour fakes his own death and attends his own funeral after escaping police custody.
- Badasses Wear Bandanas: La Tour ties a piece of clothing around his forehead like a bandana before going on his risky mission to steal King Louis' war banner in the Austrian camp. He keeps it on for the remainder of the film.
- The Cavalier Years: The film is set at the time of the Seven Years War, between 1756 and 1763.
- Chimney Entry: Rather "chimney exit". La Tour escapes custody in Paris by climbing up a chimney, in which sweeps were conveniently working with a rope (they took some bricks off the roof end to get inside).
- Clear My Name: La Tour is falsely accused of killing Saint-Severs.
- Conflict Killer: La Tour and Saint-Severs are in a duel (to the first blood most likely) to avenge La Tour's honor when they are attacked by Austrian soldiers. They immediately team up to fend the soldiers off.
- Dirty Old Man: The king's police officer who searches for La Tour sets his sights on Antoinette and tries to grope her. She traps him in her bedroom and escapes with La Tour.
- Disney Villain Death: Pérouge commits suicide after confessing the murder of the duke of Saint-Severs, by throwing himself over a stone railing and dying from the fall.
- During the War: The film opens around a battle of the Seven Years War.
- Evil Wears Black: Pérouge, The Starscream who betrays and kills his employer (the duke of Saint-Sever) then locks Saint-Sever's secret daughter up, wears black clothes.
- Faking the Dead: After escaping custody, La Tour fakes his death and even attends his own funeral.
- Fugitive Arc: La Tour is falsely accused of killing Saint-Severs and becomes a fugitive, though he still goes to Paris to honor Saint-Severs' Last Request.
- Gay Paree: When talking about Paris, Maria Theresa instantly thinks about the place's reputation for frivolity.
- Happy Ending: La Tour eventually saves Antoinette from slavery and they share The Big Damn Kiss, then decide to go to the king's court in Versailles.
- Hot Gypsy Woman: La Tour's entertainer troupe includes a woman that fits the stereotype with her dress and tambourine dances.
- In-Series Nickname: Pierrot nicknames La Tour "Ricket".
- In the Back: While La Tour and the Duke of Saint-Sever are busy fending off the Austrian soldiers sent to kill them, the Duke's traitorous secretary Pérouge stabs Saint-Sever in the back with a dagger.
- King Incognito: Louis XV attends the satire stage show of La Tour wearing a mask, and reveals himself after it ends, to everyone's surprise.
- Knighting: Louis XV knights La Tour after his daring raid to retrieve his war banner in the Austrian camp.
- Last Request: A dying Saint-Severs asks La Tour to go to Paris in order to protect his secret daughter and ensure she inherits his fortune.
- Lean and Mean: Pérouge is rather tall and slender, and conspires to take over the fortune of the Saint-Severs family, killing the duke and locking up Antoinette in his dungeon.
- Made a Slave: Instead of killing Antoinette as Pérouge originally planned, he sends her as a slave to North America.
- Men of Sherwood: After La Tour fakes his death, his entertainer troupe helps him unravelling the conspiracy of Pérouge to get the Saint-Severs' fortune, and they all do a great job at it.
- Non-Action Big Bad: Pérouge is not a man of action, and he can't defend himself when La Tour comes for him.
- Oh, Crap!: When Louis XV lifts in mask once the satire stage show of La Tour ends, La Tour starts fearing punishment. But then, the king applauds and lauds his courage.
- Self-Disposing Villain: Pérouge commits suicide upon confessing he killed Saint-Sever.
- Shirtless Scene:
- Duke Philippe de Saint-Sever doesn't take the satire show of La Tour well and has him stripped shirtless and whipped.
- La Tour later goes shirtless to swim in the river in order to sneak into the Austrian camp by night and stays that way up until he escapes the camp on horse with Louis XV's war banner.
- Singing Voice Dissonance: The singing voice of La Tour doesn't match Jean Marais' usual voice.
- Spiteful Spit: Antoinette spits on the officer who mocks her as she's reduced to slavery.
- The Starscream: Pérouge is the secretary to the duke of Saint-Severs, and conspires to get his fortune, partly out of revenge for his wife cheating on him with the duke.
- A Taste of the Lash: The king takes La Tour's satire show quite well, but Duke Philippe de Saint-Sever absolutely doesn't, and has La Tour stripped shirtless and his back whipped by his soldiers.
- Title Drop: After La Tour is knighted and asks Saint-Sever for a duel to settle the offense of the whipping, Saint-Sever tells him "La Tour, prends garde!" ("La Tour, watch out!") about half an hour into the film.
- We Need a Distraction: When sneaking into the Austrian camp to steal Louis XV's war banner, La Tour puts haystacks on fire to cause a diversion.
- Whole-Plot Reference: From about the end of the film's first third to the film's end, it's practically the same plot as Le Bossu minus its Best Served Cold Time Skip. Which fittingly came full circle the next year when Jean Marais played in a genuine adaptation of the work.
- Working-Class Hero: La Tour is an entertainer and stage actor, a lowly profession that was frowned upon at the time.
