Pleins feux sur Stanislas (1965)
Directed by Jean-Charles Dudrumet

Film Review

With the exploits of special agents James Bond and OSS 117 proving to be major box office attractions in France in the early 1960s, the spy thriller genre was rife for parodying.  One of the first send-ups to make it off the starting block was L'Honorable Stanislas (1963), with action hero Jean Marais swapping his sword for a standard issue revolver and looking surprisingly spry for someone who is careering towards fifty.  By the time the film's sequel, Pleins feux sur Stanislas, was released, two years later, the thriller parody genre had degenerated into outright silliness, thanks in part to the success of Georges Lautner's Les Barbouzes (1964).  As a result, Stanislas's second outing is somewhat less enjoyable than the first and is essentially just a tedious run-around consisting mainly of pointless chases and interminable fight scenes with comicbook enemy agents of just about every nationality.

Jean-Charles Dudrumet directs the film (which was to be his last) with the same gusto as its predecessor, but saddled with an inferior script, he has his work cut out for him.  With imagination evidently lacking in just about every department, but mostly in the writing (the final shot is a blatant steal from Hitchcock's North by Northwest (1959)), the film is heavily dependent on repeat gags, most of which fail dismally but a few hit the mark (André Luguet appearing in bed with a different woman every time Marais rings him up always gets a laugh, and there's a sly payoff at the end).  Bernadette Lafont, one of the discoveries of the French New Wave, appears totally out of place in this uneven and repetitive comedy, and the same can almost be said of the glamorous lead actress, Nadja Tiller.  Marais looks bored (or constipated) throughout the entire unhappy venture, which is presumably why there was never a third Stanislas film.

Film Synopsis

Stanislas Dubois has just retired from the espionage business and embarks on a comfortable retirement so that he can write his 'memoirs of a spy'.  Having promoted his book on the television news, Stanislas is furious when, the next day, he reads in a newspaper an acerbic critique of his adventures signed 'Rameau's nephew'.  Arriving at the newspaper's offices with a few well-chosen epithets in mind he is pleasantly surprised to encounter a ravishing journalist named Benedicte Rameau.  Forgetting in an instant the reason for his visit Stanislas tells Benedicte that he would like to see her again that same day.  Returning to their place of residence, they come across a mortally wounded man.  Before dying, the man manages to murmur a few words, which sound like 'the 13 columns' and 'coffin'.  Stanislas's former boss, Colonel de Sailly, reveals that the 13 columns is an international spy organisation.  To unravel the rest of the dead man's strange message Stanislas is ready to resume his spying activities.  Never one to miss a scoop, Benedicte wastes no time tagging along with him...