The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe

Pierre Richard rocketed from French comedy favorite to world-renowned farceur with this 1972 comedy about a concert violinist mistaken for an international spy. The premise borrows from Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest, with a government intelligence agency creating a fake agent to distract the enemy, but it's here given a cynical twist and comic treatment closer to the Pink Panther films. François (Richard) is a decoy, of course, but also an unwitting pawn that the head of the agency (Jean Rochefort) has no qualms about sacrificing in his struggle against an underling (Bernard Blier) who is plotting to take his position. Mireille Darc costars as a sexy agent sent to seduce secrets from the patsy. Klutz he may be, but François is also an amiable, innocent straight man in the eye of a spy movie hurricane, and director Yves Robert favors wonderful small scenes and wry commentary over slapstick zaniness. A clever film that was also popular with American audiences in its day, this was remade in the U.S. in 1985 with Tom Hanks as The Man with One Red Shoe (which has been rightfully forgotten). Making its high-def debut, this is recommended. (S. Axmaker)