MOVIE · 1965

How to Keep the Red Lamp Burning

ComedyDrama100 min

A red lantern passed from hand to hand links three comic stories in this 1965 French film. Bernard Blier's harried central figure sets things in motion by taking the lamp down from the entrance to a brothel. In the next tale, the same lantern gets mixed up with jewelry stolen from a young baroness, sending the plot into another round of confusion. Louis de Funès arrives in the final story as a man who decides to hang a lantern outside his own house, with predictable complications. The ensemble setup gives the movie a brisk, sketch-like rhythm built on scandal, theft, and social embarrassment.