"Le Crabe Tambour" ("Drummer Crab") is the nickname for the mysterious central character, Willsdorff (Jacques Perrin), an Alsatian, whose doomed, out-of-date career is recalled through the tales of three naval officers currently serving aboard a French supply ship in the North Atlantic.
Jean Rochefort
Captain, commander of the escort ship
Claude Rich
Pierre, medical officer
Jacques Perrin
Lieutenant Willsdorff, 'Le Crabe-Tambour'
Aurore Clément
Aurore, nurse in Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon
Odile Versois
The wife at the bistro of the former gendarme
Pierre Rousseau
Babourg, former sailor
Jacques Dufilho
Chief mechanic
François Dyrek
Former gendarme, boss of the bistro
