Rum Runners (French title: Boulevard du Rhum) is a 1971 French-Italian-Spanish crime/comedy film directed by Robert Enrico.
Set in the Prohibition era, Cornelius von Zeelinga (Lino Ventura) is a smuggler hiding out in the Caribbean after getting surprised by the US Coast Guard. He becomes obsessed with a movie star, Linda Larue (Brigitte Bardot), whom he chances to meet and has an affair with; she eventually becomes involved in his smuggling operations.
Tropes:
- From Dress to Dressing: Linda rips her feathered dress to bandage a sailor's arm after he's hit by shrapnel from an explosion.
- Melting-Film Effect: Cornelius watches the The Leopard Goddess at the theater, but the film catches fire and melts, preventing him from watching the ending. He has to sail elsewhere to watch the rest.
- Ripped from the Headlines: In-Universe; Linda's adventures with the smuggler Cornelius and the British lord Hammond make front pages and become the basis for one of her movies, The Battle of Rum Row.
- The Roaring '20s: It's set in the Prohibition era and tells the story of a smuggler who falls for a silent film star.
- Rule of Pool:
- There's a pool at Linda's mansion, so of course one of her guests drunkenly falls in it.
- When the Bar Brawl spills out into the streets, Cornelius and Hammond end up falling in a fountain.
- Show Within a Show: Linda's films, which Cornelius watches. The Leopard Goddess is about a savage tribe that she rules over as the titular character, while The Cat Woman is a gangster movie in which she plays a moll and defeats a bunch of gangsters by throwing a stick of dynamite at them. In the end, she stars in the sound picture The Battle of Rum Row, based on her adventures with Cornelius.
- Try to Fit That on a Business Card: A British lord introduces himself as "William Percival Rupert Plantagenet Hammond. 14th Marquis of Essex, 11th Count of Shetland, 17th Viscount of Feral." Sanderson exchanges disbelieving looks with Cornelius in the middle of it.
- Venturous Smuggler: It's the story of a smuggler having adventures in the Caribbean as he helps transport bootlegged rum.
