“The Return of the Big Blond” follows in 1974 on the great success of Yves Robert with Pierre Richard “The Big Blond with a black shoe”. A film in which the actor resumes his role of François Perrin, but a sequel that he first saw with a bad eye…
After the success of 1972, a not easy return for Pierre Richard
His humor, his physical presence, his blondness and his blue eyes made him a legend of French cinema. And of the dozens of movies he’s starred in, The Tall Blond with a black shoe and its sequel The Return of the Big Blonde, released in 1972 and 1974 respectively, hold center stage. In the role of the very clumsy violinist Francois Perrin, character written by Yves Robert and Francis Veber for the actor, Pierre Richard is illustrated in these two spy comedies. Even if the second opus is not up to the first…
In The Return of the Big BlondeFrançois Perrin became an embarrassing witness to the death of Colonel Milan, played by Bertrand Blier in The Tall Blond with a black shoe. He finds himself once again caught in an internal war of the French intelligence services. Colonel Toulouse (Jean Rochefort) and Captain Cambrai (Michel Duchaussoy) oppose each other, the first wishing the elimination of Perrin, the second working to establish the truth about the true identity of this “secret agent”. The Return of the Big Blonde attracts more than 2 million French spectators in the rooms. But he does not know the brilliant international career of his predecessor, and collects bad reviews.
Carrying out the sequel to a success is always a very risky bet, and this time this bet gives nothing. A fear that Pierre Richard had who, although he resumed his role, was completely against it when the opportunity arose…
“I had a prejudice against it from the first page”
In a report produced for the television program Half past twelveon the set of The Return of the Big Blonde, Pierre Richard spoke about his return. Before finally saying yes to participate in this new adventure of François Perrin, he does not hide that his fear was real.
We didn’t expect to do a sequel… I did it because… In general, sequels are always scary, but I did it because I laughed so hard reading the script. Yves Robert and Francis Veber went wild. And I who had a prejudice against it from the first page, I was really thrilled at the end.
Convinced by the screenplay by Yves Robert and Francis Veber, Pierre Richard therefore overcomes his natural fear vis-à-vis the concept of continuation and stacks. But this decision was perhaps not the best… The Return of the Big Blonde does not convince, and therefore suffers from the comparison with the success of 1972. And Francis Veber, by his own admission in the pages of the Los Angeles Times in January 1982, even declares: “The movie was not good at all.. I’m afraid I only did it for the money.”
