This is a story about greed, love and violence…

by Kimberly Lindbergs | May 29, 2006

Categories | Movie Reviews, Crime, Steve McQueen, Claudia Cardinale

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting “This is a story about greed, love and violence, set in the steaming jungles and tropical cities of Latin America. It was written by a man who spent years of his life in the tropical hell of the worst prison on earth, where he learned the truth about greed and love and violence.”

I’ve been interested in seeing Popsy Pop (a.k.a. The Butterfly Affair) for a long time and I recently got the chance to after I came across a cheap DVD of the movie available from East West DVD. The quality of the East West DVD is awful, which should be obvious from my screen shots below, but I was happy that I finally got a chance to see the movie.

Popsy Pop (1971) is a heist crime/caper film made by the French director Jean Herman. Herman is responsible for one of my favorite heist films of all time (Adieu l’ami a.k.a. Honor Among Thieves) so I knew I’d probably enjoy Popsy Pop and I wasn’t wrong.

This fascinating film was scripted by Henri Charrière who also stars in the film. Popsy Pop is loosely based on his second book called Banco the Further Adventures of Papillon. If that title sounds familiar, it’s because Henri Charriere’s first book was the critically acclaimed Papillon, which was later made into an award winning film. Many people are aware of Henri Charrière thanks to the film version of Papillon that told the story of his long captivity in the penal colony of French Guiana as well as his later imprisonment and eventual escape from the notorious prison, Devil’s island.


The real Henri Charrière and Steve McQueen as Henri Charrière in Papillon

In the film version of Papillon the role of Henri “Papillon” Charrière is played wonderfully by Steve McQueen who was nominated for a Golden Globe thanks to his terrific performance in the movie. Popsy Pop is no Papillon, and no one was nominated for any awards after it was released, but it is a fun movie and fascinating to watch if you happen to be interested in the real Henri Charrière like myself.

Interestingly, Papillon (1973) was made after Popsy Pop (1971) which seems to have been almost completely ignored by most film critics at the time. This isn’t surprising since Popsy Pop will probably only appeal to a small audience of movie lovers like myself who enjoy unusual caper films shot in exotic locations with great soundtracks. If you’re looking for a solid well acted film with a coherent script, you should probably look elsewhere since Popsy Pop has very little to hold it together besides Claudia Cardinale’s fabulous wardrobe and wacky wigs.


Popsy Pop (Claudia Cardinale) meets Inspector Silva (Stanley Baker)

The talented Claudia Cardinale (The Leopard, Cartouche, Once Upon a Time in the West, Fitzcarraldo, etc.) plays the cute and sexy Popsy Pop, a small time celebrity who travels to the jungles of Venezuela to entertain locals at a shabby night spot. She arrives by boat carrying bags of heavy luggage as well as a copy of Lewis Carroll’s book Alice in Wonderland and a large porcelain doll she likes to call Alice. These strange Alice In Wonderland references almost appear meaningless at first but soon unveil themselves. In some ways the book and doll are props to make Popsy seem more innocent than she really is, but as the film develops Popsy’s life begins to resemble a more darker version of Alice’s own adventures in Wonderland.

Tough guy Stanley Baker (The Guns of Navarone, Eva, Zulu, A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin , etc.) plays Inspector Silva who is keeping his eye on the local diamond fortune. He greets Popsy when she arrives in the steamy jungle and soon the heat between them both starts to rise. Inspector Silva falls for pretty Popsy fast and hard, which is somewhat understandable since his life in the jungle seems to have very little distractions and Popsy is most certainly an interesting distraction. Soon he is offering himself up as her personal escort and they quickly develop a loosely formed realtionship.


Popsy (Claudia Cardinale) performing her signature song

The blossoming romance between Popsy and Silva is soon overshadowed by the presence of Marco who’s played by Henri Charrière. Marco is planning a diamond heist along with a couple of unsavory thugs and the seemingly innocent Popsy. Henri Charrière’s character Marco is a career criminal who is obviously based on Charrière himself. It quickly becomes clear that Marco is already in a romantic relationship with Popsy and that he has previously come into contact with Inspector Silva. Marco knows the Inspector’s weakness for beautiful women and he has brought Popsy to the island to distract the oblivious Inspector while they steal the diamonds.

Like most good heist films things don’t exactly go as planned and Popsy Pop ends up stealing the diamonds for herself. Soon Inspector Silva and Marco are forced to team up and together they begin a cross country chase through the jungles and cities of Latin America after Popsy and the elusive diamonds.


Marco (Henri Charrière ) and Inspector Silva (Stanley Baker) question a hotel clerk

Claudia Cardinale is always interesting to watch and she seems to be enjoying her role as Popsy. On the other hand Stanley Baker is rather dull as Inspector Silva and looks a bit lost in the movie. And as much as I enjoyed seeing Henri Charrière playing Marco, his action scenes were a bit hard to watch. Charrière had lived a hard life and he was 65 years old at the time that the movie was made. Unfortunately his age and poor health are somewhat obvious in the film, but Charrière also has a sense of humor and that’s on display as well. For a man who spent much of life in prison, you’ve got admire his ambition at age 65 to attempt acting in a film based on his own script.

Jean Herman’s directing is occasionally really impressive in the film, especially after the chase for Popsy and the diamonds begin, but it also seems muddled by the clumsy script and lackluster performances from the three main stars. A lot of the action in the film is unintentionally funny and poorly executed, but I think the unusual plot turns as well as the exotic locations keep the film interesting.


Popsy (Claudia Cardinale) hides out at the home of an unusal priest

Music always plays an integral part in my own enjoyment of any movie and it can often make or break a film in my opinion. The soundtrack for Popsy Pop is without a doubt one of the most unusual ones I’ve ever heard. I really enjoyed the music conjured up by Frédéric Botton for this film, which is a strange combination of primitive drumming and early synthesizer sounds. It gives the movie an almost surreal mood at times and seems to build and build as the film heads toward it’s climax. Claudia Cardinale also sings a musical number in the production, but the only thing really memorable about that is the bizarre costume she wore while singing the song. Unfortunately the soundtrack is not available on CD yet, but you can occasionally find the soundtrack on vinyl selling for rather steep prices.

With all it’s faults I still found a lot to enjoy about Popsy Pop. It’s a shame that the movie hasn’t gotten a better DVD release yet because it would really benefit from a better quality print with good sound. Hopefully a DVD company will take the time to restore the film someday before it’s forgotten about forever.

4 Comments »

  1. Dennis Cozzalio says; June 1, 2006 @ 8:29 pm

    K: Ever since discovering this blog I’ve felt you were a woman after my own heart, and now, with the revelation of Popsy Pop and that terrific writeup on CinemaRetro and Caroline Munro (and that trailer), I’m sure of it!

    I saw Star Crash in a drive-in as the second feature with Laserblast back in 1978– I always felt like that was the movie Joe Dante was explictly parodying with the drive-in feature seen in Explorers. And if Christopher Plummer thought he was slumming when he made The Sound of Music, well, let’s just say I’d love to have a peek at his diary entries during this production!

    Thanks so much for all your great posts here. I’m so glad I discovered your site (or did you discover mine? Oh, who cares!)– it’s rapidly become one of my favorites. And I did see Alucarda this past weekend– I can’t say I was enamored of it as you are, but I still enjoyed it immensely. I watched it immediately after seeing William Lustig’s Maniac, and I was so grateful for film craft and style of any kind that it seemed like a gift! (I’ll be mentioning it in my upcoming underappreciated horror round up, for sure. If there’s any other titles available on DVD you’d like to suggest, please e-mail me!)
    And I finally got around to Mario Bava’s A Bay of Blood last night, which I thought was terrific. That’s definitely on the list.

    Okay, gotta go back to work right now. Thanks again, K, for putting a big smile on my face today. (Oh, and it seems I’ll be posting some Hammer stuff in the next day or so too, as the American Cinematheque here in L.A. is doing a Hammer series in June, along with a bunch of other great stuff, that I want to highlight. Whoo-hoo!)

  2. cinebeats says; June 2, 2006 @ 7:29 pm

    Ha, ha! Glad you’re enjoying my blog posts Dennis.

    Starcrash is an interesting flick. I’m not sure it would be worth watching if Caroline Munro wasn’t in it. I first saw it on TV in the early 80s and loved it just because I loved anything to do with “space” while I was growing up and I thought Caroline was very groovy in it. If Christopher Plummer thought the sound of Music was slumming he must have blocked Starcrash from his mind. He’s obviously in deep denial or thinks we’ll all just forget about the movie. Obviously some of us have not forgotten about it.

    I’m happy to hear you got a chance to watch Alucarda even if you didn’t enjoy it as much as I did. It’s an interesting movie and I’d like to see the rest of the director’s films become available on DVD.

    I’m happy to hear you’ll be going to the British Horror festival in LA! I really wish I lived more south and could catch some of the movies being played since many of my favorites will be shown.

    I’ll send you an email about the horror films since I’m not sure where to begin with recs. Horror films are my first love and I’ve probably seen thousands at this point.

    Thanks again Dennis! I’ve enjoyed getting to meet various other film fans through this blog like yourself. I wish I had started this thing a few years ago.

  3. Gary McMahon says; August 9, 2008 @ 8:20 am

    This is a cool site that shows real love for a period in movies that was creative, camp and kinky. I love it too. Fab.

  4. michael emmett says; July 5, 2010 @ 2:28 am

    I’ve never written a comment before, but I must tell you your blog is fascinating. I don’t know how this stuff works, but the last comment seems to be from 2008. Are you still doing your fine work in this Year of Our Lord 2010? Hope so.


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  • Cinebeats chronicles one woman's love affair with '60s & '70s era cinema. Or as she likes to call it, cinema's Platinum Age! Blog design, updates and all original content is provided by Kimberly Lindbergs. She can be reached by email at:
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