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Overview
Le Monocle noir is a French comedy thriller film first released in 1961,
directed by Georges Lautner.
The film is based on a novel by Rémy and stars Paul Meurisse, Pierre Blanchar, Elga Andersen, Albert Rémy Bernard Blier and Gérard Buhr.
It has also been released under the title: The Black Monocle.
Our overall rating for this film is: good.
Synopsis
The Marquis de Villemaur brings together a strange collection of
individuals at his country château. All are rightwing
extremists who are expecting to be introduced to a survivor of the
Third Reich. Unbeknown to the Marquis, one of the attendees,
Commander Dromard, is a member of the French security services.
When it is revealed that one of the guests at the château is a
Soviet agent, the Marquis instructs his henchmen to kill him. The
manhunt is witnessed by the secretary Monique, who is killed in her
turn. Dromard implicates the librarian Mérignac in
this latter murder, before making his move to expose the Marquis and
his fascist allies...
Film Review
Although he was far from enthusiastic about having to adapt
Rémy’s thriller novel, director Georges Lautner does a
reasonable job and delivers the first of his celebrated thriller
parodies. As the film was originally scripted as a straight
thriller, the humour is stretched pretty thinly, so you should not
expect too many laughs. Lautner would have far more success with
his subsequent comedy-thrillers, including the direct sequel to this
film L’Oeil du monocle (1962) and
the classic Les Tontons flingueurs
(1963). Lautner’s direction on Le Monocle
noir lacks the inspired touch, although there are a few
surprising flourishes towards the end. The film's excellent cast
includes Pierre Blanchar in his final screen appearance (as the
eccentric Marquis de Villemaur), although the star of the film is Paul
Meurisse, in the first of three outings as the supremely elegant secret
agent Dromard. Bernard Blier makes a few humorous incursions, and
it is worth noting that his son Bertrand began his film career here, as
Lautner’s assistant director.
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Credits
Similar films:
If you like this film you may also like the following: À bout de souffle (1960) Les Barbouzes (1964) Le Cerveau (1969) Le Corniaud (1965) Coup de torchon (1981) Le Dernier des six (1941) Elle boit pas, elle fume pas, elle drague pas, mais... elle cause! (1970) L’Emmerdeur (1973) L’Ennemi public no 1 (1953) L’Homme de Rio (1964) Le Locataire (1976) Pierrot le fou (1965) Quand passent les faisans (1965) Le Trio infernal (1974) |
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