At the beginning of the 1970s, Pierre Richard and his burlesque humor were not exactly unanimous, despite his success in Alexander the Blessedreleased in 1968. The actor even almost missed out on a cult role.
Released in 1972, this film helped launch Pierre Richard’s career. However, it took little for the actor to miss the role of François Perrin in The Tall Blond with a black shoe. In this film, he plays a distracted violinist, wearing mismatched shoes when he arrives at Orly. Colonel Toulouse (Jean Rochefort), a secret service agent looking for a decoy, uses this detail to designate him as a spy in Milan, a rival he wants to fool. François Perrin will therefore be watched and photographed in particular by the superb Christine, but this naive man falls in love with her. If the role today seems tailor-made for Pierre Richard, it is nevertheless Claude Rich that Yves Robert initially thought, reports the site Cine Series. It is thanks to Francis Veber – who is writing the screenplay with the director – that Pierre Richard is considered to lend his features to François Perrin.
“Everyone was against Pierre”
If Yves Robert is finally quite easily convinced by the choice of Pierre Richard, at Gaumont (the producer and distributor of the film), we are not at all of this opinion. They criticize the actor for his atypical profile and burlesque humor. “Despite the success of Le Distrait, everyone was against Pierre. A Gaumont boss claimed: ‘He’s going to make us lose the province!’ What a lack of flair!”remembers Francis Veber.
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The Tall Blond with a black shoe is a real hit when it comes out
At the time of its release, the feature film was a great success, attracting more than 3.4 million spectators in French cinemas. The film works so well that it has a sequel two years later called The Return of the Big Blonde. The success even goes beyond the borders of France and will even be adapted to the United States by Stan Dragoti. The movie then becomes The Man with One Red Shoe (The Man in the Red Shoe), and was released in 1985. It was then Tom Hanks who got the main role. To see the original, it’s on Prime Video that it’s happening!
Article written in collaboration with 6Medias
