It might seem strange but Fernandel's talent was huge in dramas as well.Most of his parts in Marcel Pagnol's works verged on tragic anyway.
The film begins with the celebration of Doctor Pellegrin's forty-fifth birthday.He seems a happy man with a beautiful wife .Henri Verneuil (then a much better director than in the sixties when he made blockbusters by the dozen) introduces his hero with a painting first.
A very long flash back tells us that the doctor's life was not a happy one;his wife was a straight bourgeois lady and he fell for a young girl ,Martine (Françoise Arnoul who sometimes steals the show from the star).
The story is not really quirky but the cast (it also includes the excellent Sylvie)makes up for it.There are also nice pictures of Arles (and the Alyscamps,the biggest Roman necropolis in France.