''Les Barbouzes'' ( Barbouze being French slang for a spy, deriving from the idea that spies hide behind false beards) is a 1964 French cult comedy film, screened in the United States as ''The Great Spy Chase''. Starring

Lino Ventura Angiolino Giuseppe Pasquale Ventura (14 July 1919 – 22 October 1987), known as Lino Ventura, was an Italian-born actor and philanthropist, who lived and worked for most of his life in France. He was considered one of the greatest leading men ...

Bernard Blier Bernard Blier (; 11 January 1916 – 29 March 1989) was a French character actor. Life and career Blier was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where his father, a researcher at the Pasteur Institute, was posted at the time. His rotund featu ...

and

Mireille Darc Mireille Darc (; 15 May 1938 – 28 August 2017) was a French model and actress. She appeared as a lead character in Jean-Luc Godard's 1967 film ''Weekend''. Darc was a Knight of the Legion of Honour and Commander of the National Order of Meri ...

, with dialogue by

Michel Audiard Paul Michel Audiard (; 15 May 1920 – 27 July 1985) was a French screenwriter and film director, known for his witty, irreverent and slang-laden dialogues which made him a prominent figure on the French cultural scene of the 1960s and 1970s. He ...

, it is an espionage caper built around the efforts of agents from various countries to extract valuable weaponry patents from the young and attractive widow of an international arms dealer.

Plot

In Paris, French counter-espionage are alerted to the death in an expensive brothel of international arms dealer Shah. To avoid repercussions and to exploit this opportunity, they smuggle his corpse back to his castle in

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

in the care of top agent Francis, posing as the dead man's cousin Ludo. There he hands it over to the young and very attractive French widow Amaranth, who is now the legal owner of the valuable patents for nuclear weaponry that Bernard Shah had acquired. The fake cousin Ludo's mission is to get the patents for France, but he is joined at the castle by a fake Russian stepbrother Boris, a fake German psychoanalyst Hans and a fake Swiss priest Eusebio. After trying unsuccessfully to eliminate each other by such devices as a bomb in the bathroom cistern and a scorpion in the bed, the four agents agree an uneasy truce and instead concentrate on charming the widow. While she is in no hurry to decide the future of her person or her patents, the shaky alliance of the spies faces two new challenges. One is O'Brien, a brash American who regularly bursts in and is regularly thrown out into the moat by the temporary allies. The other is gradual and subtle, in the form of Chinese spies who infiltrate the castle by killing the servants one by one and assuming their clothes and jobs. Following a climactic battle in which the hordes of Chinese using martial arts are eliminated, Francis is admitted to the widow's bed and in the morning escapes with her to

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

, where the patents are in a bank vault. She, regarding the trip as an advance honeymoon with her next husband, agrees to return to France with him and the patents. But the three foiled spies and O'Brien have not given up, leading to further battles which demolish part of the Portuguese hotel and result in bodies dropping regularly from the night express to Paris. In the end, as a patriotic act to secure the patents for France, Francis commits bigamy by marrying Amaranth.

Principal cast

: Francis Lagneau, a French spy nicknamed "Cousin Ludo" *

: Eusebio Cafarelli, a Swiss spy nicknamed "The Canon" *

: Antoinette Dubois, a French widow calling herself "Amaranthe" *

Charles Millot Charles Millot (born Veljko Milojević; 23 December 1921 – 6 October 2003) was a Yugoslav-born French actor who made many film appearances over a 35-year period. His notable film appearances include: '' The Train'' (1964), ''The Night of t ...

: Hans Müller, a German spy nicknamed "The Good Doctor" *

Francis Blanche François Jean Blanche, known as "Francis Blanche" (; 20 July 1921 – 6 July 1974) was a French actor, singer, humorist and author. He was a very popular figure on stage, radio and in films, during the 1950s and 1960s. Early life Blanch ...

: Boris Vassilieff, a Russian spy nicknamed "Trinitrotoluene" * : Rossini, Shah's aide nicknamed "Faithful Rudolph" *

Jess Hahn Jesse Beryle Hahn (October 29, 1921June 29, 1998) was an American- French character actor who mostly starred in French films. Biography After serving with the Marines in the Second World War, he moved to France in 1949 and took French citi ...

: "Commodore" O'Brien, an American *

Noël Roquevert Noël Roquevert (born Noël Louis Raymond Bénévent; 18 December 1892 – 6 November 1973) was a French stage and film actor. He appeared in more than 180 films between 1932 and 1972. Roquevert was born in Doué-la-Fontaine and was married ...

: Colonel Lanoix, Francis' control

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Great Spy Chase, The 1964 films Films directed by Georges Lautner French spy comedy films Films with screenplays by Michel Audiard Films with screenplays by Albert Simonin 1960s spy comedy films 1964 comedy films Cold War spy films 1960s French films Films scored by Michel Magne 1960s French-language films French-language spy comedy films