It introduced the pipe-smoking, well-meaning but clumsy character of Monsieur Hulot, who appears in Tati's subsequent films, including Mon Oncle (1958), Playtime (1967), and Trafic (1971).

[1] Following scenes of chaotic departures from an unnamed railway station and bus stop, Monsieur Hulôt, an apparent bachelor of comedic gait, is seen driving his rudimentary 1924 Salmson AL car to his beachside holiday (French 'vacances') hotel.

Combined with frequent long shots of scenes with multiple characters, Tati believed that the results would tightly focus audience attention on the comical nature of humanity when interacting as a group, as well as his own meticulously choreographed visual gags.

Tati had fallen in love with the beguiling coastline while staying in nearby Port Charlotte with his friends, M. and Mme Lemoine, before the war and resolved to return one day to make a film there.

"[4] "Neither too big nor too small, [St Marc fit the bill] - a sheltered inlet, with a graceful curve of sand, it boasted a hotel on the beach, L'Hotel de la Plage, on which the main action could be centred.

He said the film "exploded with merriment" and that Tati "is a long-legged, slightly pop-eyed gent whose talent for caricaturing the manners of human beings is robust and intense...There is really no story to the picture...The dialogue...is at a minimum, and it is used just to satirize the silly and pointless things that summer people say.

The central character is an unforgettable amalgam of bafflement at the modern world, eagerness to please and just the right amount of eccentricity - i.e. not too much - his every effort to fit in during his seaside holiday merely succeeds in creating chaos out of orderliness.