Le monocle noir

A franchise which was probably the best spy thrillers France had to offer ;none of the Coplan,OSS 117 ,Vicomte and others can hold a candle to James Bond 007.

Yet ,the Monocle series -which is a trilogy-was something different ;it was some kind of forerunner of the spoofs on OSS 117 in which Jean Dujardin would shine .But unlike his character ,Le Monocle is very smart and ,unlike so many Froggies heroes of the two-bit spy thrillers of the sixties ,Paul Meurisse ("les diaboliques" "la vérité") gave his secret agent a strong personality : deadpan sense of humor,fin gourmet fond of caviar and champagne, and an artful devil .Two characters (Elga Andersen's and Robert Dalban's )appear in another movie of the trilogy

Lovely Andersen appears in this movie , joined by another blonde beauty of the French cinema ,Marie Dubois.

That said, this first installment is not the best of the trilogy ; the story is too complicated for comfort , and humor ,which came to the fore in both sequels (particularly "le monocle rit jaune" ,the craziest of the trilogy) does not always make up for it in this story of a neo-nazi circle including a survivor of the Hitlerian days ,considered their messiah.

The main interest of the movie is Paul Meurisse , who appears now and then with a glass eye, and whose excellent performance saves the movie from tedium; He is given some good lines , but not enough to sustain the interest throughout ; yet there's a good atmosphere , a Gothic castle and Wagner's music to boot .