ABSTRACT
Fernandel the gendarme, on the lookout for smugglers in a village on the French-Italian border, suddenly discovers that he is Italian, not French as he had always thought. He thus finds himself obliged to set off for Italy to be naturalized as French, so he can be recognized as a full citizen in France. But the bureaucratic wrangles are such that neither country, France nor Italy, wants anything more to do with him and he is turned back by customs on both sides of the border. As if paralysed, he is unable to take a step in either direction without risking a beating.
