AllMovie

Voyage-Surprise was one of three films written by poet/playwright Jacques Prevert and directed by Prevert's brother Pierre. Sioel, a veteran French stage actor seldom seen in films, stars as a slightly off-center old man. With a divergent group of friends and family members in tow, Sioel goes on an improvised, idiosyncratic tour of the French countryside. No "official" tour would ever include such ingredients as a brothel or a gang of terrorists, which is of course this film's principal charm. Among the participants in Sioel's odyssey is the lovely Martine Carol, making her second screen appearance. Inasmuch as the voyage in Voyage-Suprise is referred to as a "mystery tour", one wonders whether the film was a primary inspiration for the Beatles' picaresque television special Magical Mystery Tour.