The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe
| Le Grand Blond avec une chaussure noire | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Directed by | Yves Robert |
| Produced by |
Alain Poiré Yves Robert |
| Written by | Francis Veber |
| Starring |
Pierre Richard Bernard Blier Jean Rochefort Mireille Darc |
| Music by | Vladimir Cosma |
| Cinematography | René Mathelin |
| Edited by | Ghislaine Desjonqueres |
| Distributed by | Gaumont |
|
Release date
|
|
|
Running time
|
90 minutes |
| Country | France |
| Language | French |
The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe (French: Le Grand Blond avec une chaussure noire) is a 1972 French comedy film directed by Yves Robert, written by Francis Veber, starring Pierre Richard, Jean Rochefort, Bernard Blier and Mireille Darc. The film's sequel, Le Retour du Grand Blond, was released in 1974.
The film was remade in English as The Man with One Red Shoe.
Bernard Milan, the second-in-command of France's Counter-Espionage department, is out to discredit his chief Louis Toulouse so that he can supplant him. When a French heroin smuggler who has been arrested in New York claims that the drug smuggling was a secret mission on the orders of French Counter-Espionage (actually on Milan's orders), the resulting bad press reflects on Toulouse, who cannot prove that Milan was responsible. In retaliation, Toulouse hatches a plot to deal with his ambitious subordinate: in a room which he knows is filled with hidden microphones, he sends his assistant Perrache to Orly airport at 9:30AM the next morning, making Milan (who has been listening) believe that Perrache has gone to meet a master spy who will expose Milan's treachery. However, Toulouse secretly instructs Perrache to choose someone at random from the crowd of travelers arriving at that time.
After considering several possibilities from the flight arriving at the specified time, Perrache selects François Perrin, an unsuspecting violinist, who is noticeable because, as the result of a practical joke played on him by his fellow orchestra members, he has arrived wearing a black shoe on one foot and a reddish-brown one on the other. Milan takes the bait and immediately begins a series of attempts to find out what Perrin knows—never ever realizing the fact that Perrin knows nothing at all about espionage (although he is an expert on music). Milan's machinations involve Perrin in a series of increasingly peculiar adventures which he either avoids or escapes from by pure luck (which only confirm Milan's increasingly paranoid suspicions), and although Perrin is largely oblivious to the mayhem occurring around him he can't help noticing Milan's top agent, the beautiful femme fatale Christine. Adding to the confusion is the fact that Perrin is having an affair with Paulette Lefebvre, the wife of his best friend Maurice (both of whom are also in the same orchestra as Perrin), and Maurice, upon accidentally hearing a recording of Perrin and Paulette having torrid sex (made by Milan's agents and listened to inside a floral delivery truck), jumps to the mistaken conclusion that Paulette is having an affair with a florist. All the time, Toulouse and Perrache watch the chaos serenely, although Perrache is troubled by his chief's callousness towards Perrin's possibly being killed.
...
Wikipedia