The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe (1972)

“It's him. The big blond with the black shoe.” — Perrache

The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe. The film’s title is certain to tug at your curiosity. Read it or hear it and you’ll likely picture a lanky figure, clumsily stomping about in mismatched shoes – and you wouldn’t be entirely wrong to expect that.

One part North by Northwest, one part The Pink Panther – a story of mistaken identity with an unwitting fool at the center of the action – The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe, better known by its French title Le Grand Blond avec une chaussure noire, is a 1972 spy spoof from filmmaker Yves Robert (La Guerre des boutons) starring comic actor Pierre Richard in a role he would play four more times over the next decade.

Le Grand Blond follows François Perrin (Richard), a bumbling violinist who unknowingly becomes tangled up in a battle between rival factions of the French secret service. Picked out of an airport crowd because of his mismatched shoes – the result of a practical joke – and used as a decoy in an operation to expose an ambitious spymaster (Bernard Blier) as a traitor, Perrin haplessly avoids capture through a combination of ignorance and sheer luck.…

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from Art of the Title http://ift.tt/2rQofnj