In the end, exhausted by his frantic efforts, he stops to help a family pitchfork their new-mown hay into a horse-drawn cart, while the boy from the opening scene completes the deliveries on François's route.

Largely a visual comedy in the silent tradition, dialogue is used at times to tell part of the story and an ancient woman with a goat appears sybil-like on occasions as a commentator.

[1] Critics have noted how Tati turns the human body, with its inbuilt limitations, into a form of machine that performs tasks.

[2][3] A hidden factor in this and following films is that the old world of rural France is shown as one of curves, in space and in time, with people and their livestock following fluid relaxed routines, while the new world modelled on the USA operates on straight lines in rigid timeframes, symbolised by François literally cutting corners to speed up his round.

This version is in fact the work of Sophie Tatischeff, editor and daughter of Jacques Tati, and François Ede, cinematographer, who meticulously edited and restored the film from the original camera negative which had been preserved and stored away for years.