Le Grand blond avec une chaussure noire (1972)
Directed by Yves Robert

Film Review

Indisputably a French comedy classic, Le Grand blond avec une chaussure noire exemplifies the thriller parody that was hugely popular in France in the 60s and 70s and which can still be relied upon to attract a massive audience when shown on French television. By the early 1970s, when this film was released, the comédie policière was one of the most popular genres in French cinema, and Le Grand blond was seen by three and half million spectators on its first release.  Georges Lautner is the director who is most closely associated with this kind of film - he established the genre with such films as Les Tontons flingueurs (1963) and Ne nous fâchons pas (1966) - but other filmmakers were not slow to cash in on the success of the comedy thriller.  Le Grand blond specifically parodies the spy thrillers that had become enormously popular by the late 1960s, mainly through the success of the James Bond films, and most of its humour derives from its appropriation of the familiar clichés for comic effect.  The film was directed (with great panache) by Yves Robert, who had previously scored a major hit with La Guerre des boutons (1962) and would go on to direct the acclaimed diptych La Gloire de mon père / Le Château de ma mère in 1990.  Robert was also an accomplished actor and makes a cameo appearance in this film (as the conductor of an orchestra which appears determined to murder and ritually disembowel Mozart's Symphony No. 40).

Screenwriter Francis Veber was near to the start of his career when he scripted this film, which saw the first appearance of his trademark everyman character François Perrin / Pignon.  Veber's flair for situation and visual comedy is as evident in Le Grand blond as it is in his subsequent comedies, which include such classics as L'Emmerdeur (1973), La Chèvre (1981) and Le Dîner de cons (1998).  Veber's success lies in his ability to find humour in the commonplace - he take a familiar situation and gives it a slight nudge towards the surreal, so that what could very nearly have been a straight drama or thriller is immediately transformed into a comedy joy ride of non-stop hilarity.  Le Grand blond perfectly illustrates Veber's technique - most of the humour stems from that mainstay of French farce, a simple case of mistaken identity.  It helps that the main protagonist is played by a comedy genius, Pierre Richard, who fits so perfectly into Veber's madcap universe that it seems hard to believe he was ever allowed to leave it.  Richard would return as François Perrin in the film's immediate sequel , the equally enjoyable Le Retour du grand blond (1974), and then subsequently in Le Jouet (1976) and La Chèvre (1981).

Starring opposite Pierre Richard is another icon of French cinema, the magnificent Bernard Blier.   Despite his long and varied filmography, Blier featured most prominently in this kind of film, almost invariably cast as the implacable villainous 'boss', whose dastardly schemes would generally be foiled not by the courage and skill of his opponents but by the sheer bloody-minded incompetence of his underlings.  The excellent supporting cast includes some other very well-known actors of the period, including Jean Rochefort (impeccable as the Machiavellian security chief who is so smooth you feel he should be in a Cinzano ad), Mireille Darc (stunning in a cheeky reverse décolleté number that should have started a fashion revolution) and Jean Carmet (at his funniest as Richard's comedy stooge).  The combination of Veber's unfalteringly funny script and the faultless contributions from such a great cast make Le Grand blond avec une chaussure noire one of the enduring delights of French film comedy.  The 1985 American film The Man with One Red Shoe, which starred Tom hanks, was a remake of this film, but it was nothing like as successful as the original - partly because it dispensed with most of the best gags, but mainly because Tom Hanks is not Pierre Richard.

Film Synopsis

Colonel Louis Toulouse, a senior operative in the French security service, has become so fed up with his ambitious rival, Milan, that he decides to send him off on a wild goose chase, in the hope that it will ruin his career.  To this end, he directs Milan's attention towards a man chosen at random in the milling crowds at Orly airport and identifies him as a dangerous spy.  Without delay, Milan goes after the seemingly ordinary individual, not knowing that he is in fact nothing more than a second rate musician, François Perrin.  The reason Colonel Toulouse selected him had more to do with his odd footwear - one of his shoes is yellow, the other black - than with any latent capacity for espionage.  This is not the first time that Perrin's absent mindedness has got him into deep trouble.

With all of the resources available to him, Milan is soon busily tracking the supposed agent as he goes about his normal everyday business.  On the face of it, François's behaviour appears to be perfectly ordinary, but Milan isn't deceived for a moment.  It is quite obvious to him that he is dealing with a very clever and very dangerous individual, one of the most devious spies he has ever encountered.  To prove this, Milan recruits an attractive blonde named Christine to gain François's confidence and extract from him proof of his undercover activities.  Christine makes an easy conquest of the hapless musician, but a romantic evening is somewhat marred when Milan and Toulouse's agents show up at François's apartment and start wiping each other out...