Le Retour du grand blond (1974) - film review

Cambrai, a modest captain in the French secret service, discovers that his superior, Colonel Toulouse, was responsible for the death of his rival Milan.  To cover his tracks, Toulouse immediately sends two hit-men to Rio de Janeiro to eliminate François Perrin, the innocent “grand blond” who was instrumental in Toulouse’s scheme to remove Milan.  When Perrin miraculously survives, Toulouse changes his strategy.  He takes Perrin into his confidence and attempts to convert him into an ace secret agent, thereby discrediting Cambrai and proving that he is innocent of Milan’s death.  When his beloved Christine is abducted by Toulouse’s agents, Perrin has no other choice.  Indeed, he seems to relish the prospect of becoming a real-life James Bond…

After the enormous success of Le Grand blond avec une chaussure noire (1972), director Yves Robert and screenwriter Francis Veber would have been mad not to have made a sequel.  Sure enough, two years later Pierre Richard – alias “le grand blond” – returned to delight audiences in probably his best-loved role, the bumbling, accident-prone musician François Perrin.  Jean Rochefort also makes a welcome return, as the suave, manipulative secret service supremo Toulouse, although Bertrand Blier is noticeably missing (his character was killed off in the earlier film).  Blier’s absence is just about made up for by the return of Jean Carmet and Mireille Darc (and that amazing dress).

As in the first Grand blond episode, this laugh-a-minute sequel is filled with hilarious comic situations and some truly brilliant visual jokes, all of which play to Pierre Richard’s strength as a comic performer.  Whilst the plot isn’t on a par with that of the earlier film, the madcap comedy is fresh and irresistibly funny, making this a very entertaining send-up of the whole spy-thriller genre.  Composer Vladimir Cosma deserves top marks for probably the best appropriation of the James Bond theme ever.

© James Travers 2005

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