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. His two daughters, Barbara & Dominique, are artists with their studios in Eze. Blanche was born in an artistic family, mainly of stage actors—including his father Louis Blanche and his uncle, Emmanuel Blanche, who was a painter—. He completed his secondary schooling at fourteen, the youngest in France to do so at the time. In the 1940s and 1950s, Blanche was part of Robert Dhéry's theatrical company Les Branquignols, with whom he played in the film Ah! Les belles bacchantes, starring Robert Dhéry, Colette Brosset (Dhéry's then-wife), and Louis de Funès; directed by Jean Loubignac in 1954. Blanche teamed up with Pierre Dac to form a comic duo best remembered for Le Sâr Rabindranath Duval, a sketch about a phony and nonsensical Indian clairvoyant and guru (1957). They also created a popular and equally nonsensical radiophonic series, loosely based on a highly improbable espionage and conspiration plot, Malheur aux barbus, which was broadcast on Paris Inter in 213 episodes from 1951 to 1952. The same plot and characters were revived on Europe 1 in a series called Signé Furax, enjoying no less than 1,034 daily episodes between 1956 and 1960. Both broadcasts were phenomenal audience successes in the pre-television era. Blanche was also renowned for broadcasting phone pranks, in which he entertained listeners by making the most improbable situations sound plausible. He wrote poems, and the lyrics of 673 songs. On stage, he acted in Tartuffe and Néron and, in 1955, Chevalier du Ciel, an operetta by Luis Mariano at the Gaîté-Lyrique theatre. Blanche also enjoyed a successful cinematographic career, both as an actor and scriptwriter. He appeared as a hard-headed German colonel ("Obersturmführer Schulz") opposite Brigitte Bardot in Babette s'en va-t-en guerre (1959). He was one of the favourite actors of French filmmaker Georges Lautner, and played Maître Folace (a shady solicitor counselling a colourful gangster mob) in Les Tontons flingueurs (1963). Blanche also appeared in Boris Vassilief's Les Barbouzes (1964). He delighted in parodying classical music, adapting famous works such as Schubert's "Die Forelle" (The Trout) into a crazy and slightly risqué piece about a 16-year-old romantic girl obsessed with Schubert's song to the point of giving birth to a live trout while performing it on her piano. Similarly, he turned Beethoven's 5th Symphony into a lengthy and quite repetitive musical glorification of the clothes peg and its fictitious inventor, Jérémie-Victor Opdebec. Blanche died at the age of 52, from a heart attack with a background of untreated Type 1 diabetes. He is buried in Èze cemetery. Source: Article "Francis Blanche" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Belle de Jour
as Monsieur AdolpheBeautiful young housewife Séverine Serizy cannot reconcile her masochistic fantasies with her...
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The Black Tulip
as PlantinAristocrat Guillaume de Saint Preux leads a double life as a masked bandit known as the Black...
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Crooks in Clover
as Maître FolaceAn aging gangster, Fernand Naudin is hoping for a quiet retirement when he suddenly inherits a...
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The Great Spy Chase
as Boris VassilievA cold-war spy parody. After the death of an armaments manufacturer, an international group of...
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Peek-a-boo
as Garibaldo Trouchet, le ténor / Un musicienA small-town policeman is informed that "naked women" are dancing in a revue at a local variety...
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Operation Gold Ingot
as FellousThe owner of a high-tech heating mechanism is being forced by gangsters to help them in a plot...
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The Big Wash
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The Oldest Profession
as The Doctor (segment "Aujourd'hui")A collection of sketches that tells the story of prostitution through the ages.
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The Seventh Juror
as Attorney GeneralIn a moment of madness a middle-aged, married and respectable pharmacist kills a young woman who...
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The World's Most Beautiful Swindlers
as Mr. Humlaupt (segment "L'Homme qui vendit la tour Eiffel")Five swindle stories, taking place in five international cities: Tokyo, Japan ("Fumiko's Five...
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Thank Heaven for Small Favors
as Chief Insp. CucheratBad financial conditions compel an aristocratic family to do strange work.
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Dandelions by the Roots
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The Eroticist
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The Green Mare
as Ferdinand HaudouinA green mare makes the fortune of her owner, the horse dealer Haudouin. Shortly after his death,...
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Male Hunt
as Nino PapatakisA few stories about marriage and its problems. Antoine is about to marry Gisèle. His friend...
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Babette Goes to War
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Some Like It... Cold
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The Big Scare
as uncreditedTwo police inspectors pursue a dangerous counterfeiter on the run.
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Rita the Field Marshal
as Captain Hans VogelA waitress helps a scientist flee the Nazis.
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No Pockets in a Shroud
as Nathaël GrissomIn the newspaper he has just founded, journalist Dolannes exposes all the wheeling and dealing...
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Les Compagnons de la marguerite
as L'inspecteur Maurice LeloupJean-Louis Matouzec works for French National Library as an expert looking after the restoration...
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Sweet and Sour
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Long Live Henry IV... Long Live Love!
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Anyone Can Kill Me
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People in Luck
as M. Bricheton (« Le Repas gastronomique »)A light French comedy of 5 segments.
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Clémentine chérie
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Love and the Frenchwoman
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Too Late to Love
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Erotissimo
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The Big Grasshopper
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The Edifying and Joyous Story of Colinot
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Deux Romains en Gaule
as Le druide inventeur de la potion d'invisibilitéThis film is directly inspired by Asterix, created by René Goscinny and Albert UDERZO,...
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Du mou dans la gâchette
as La PrudenceNicolas Pappas and Léon Dubois, two particularly calamitous killers, arrive in Paris, where a...
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Toto in Paris
as Il maggiordomo (uncredited)Duclos's son, a worldly gangster, is compromised in a case of which he is innocent. The proof of...
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Honoré de Marseille
as Pasquale MarchettiAs he explains to the journalist who came to interview him, Honoré cultivates, as a perfect...
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Romulus and the Sabines
as MezioThe classic story from the early days of Rome where there are no women. Romulus, the founder of...
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Are You Engaged to a Greek Sailor or an Airline Pilot?
as Maurice GombaudRoger Blanchard has a busy life. On the family side, he is married and has two children, aged...
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Alice au pays des merveilles
as King of heartsAlice sets off in pursuit of a mysterious white rabbit in a hurry. After a dizzying fall into a...
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The Stud
as Tax collector DupuisVeterinary surgeon William Chaminade is having a peaceful holiday in the South of France when he...
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The Great Java
as Auguste Kougloff / Augustin ColombaniFive friends come to the city Brizul. Here they want to find Mr Auguste Kougloff who owns them...
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Ces messieurs de la gâchette
as Marco LombardiGabriel Pelletier's life is no bed of roses. Not because of his job: he is a successful sales...
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Jaloux comme un tigre
as le chauffeurHenri has a beautiful wife, Sophie. Unfortunately, suffering from an unhealthy jealousy, he...
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Le pillole di Ercole
as AugustoA doctor unwittingly drinks an aphrodisiac fluid and thus has relationships with an...
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Les enquiquineurs
as Monsieur Achille EloyMonsieur Eloy, his wife and their ten-year-old son, Zizi, are off to their country home for the...
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Racconti romani di una ex-novizia
as Pietro l'AretinoA girl who entered the convent pushed by devotion is depraved, marries, betrays her husband and...
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Under Your Hat
as Mario l'enchanteurAn illegal gambling den where players can lose millions... and the owners make their fortune.
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Champagne for Savages
as FrancisA diverse group of friends gather to celebrate a witless woman's birthday in this comedy drama...
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Les jambes en l'air
as HugonStory of a marginal couple, César and Favouille, who set out to find their youngest daughter,...
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Les baratineurs
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La Grande Maffia
as Modeste MietteAfter receiving a mobster's heart as a transplant, a modest bank teller embarks on a life of...
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Par le sang des autres
as Le médecinIn a little French town everything goes on as usual and people seem friendly and good-natured,...
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Tartarin de Tarascon
as Antoine TartarinA well-to-do bourgeois, Tartarin lives in Tarascon, a small southern town, among friends who,...
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The Men in the Family
as StrumbergerGabriel Pelletier, sales manager for a major industrial firm, would be the happiest of men if he...
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Say it with Flowers
as uncreditedThe action begins in black and white, like a memory. Klaus is a Nazi military who has just...
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The Vendetta
as BartoliArbella is a charming village in Corsica. It's such a pleasant place to live that Monsieur...
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Snobs!
as MorlochFour vice-presidents fight among themselves to reach the top post after the president dies....
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La Polka des menottes
as un voisinElisabeth is persuaded to have killed her noisy upstairs neighbor, scientist Charles Magne. To...
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Salut Berthe !
as Passerby with the pipe (uncredited)Adrien Chautard, a major industrialist from Abidjan, has been chosen to replace an expert on the...
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We Like It Cold
as von KrussendorfA farcical account of the happenings in Rome in 1943 when the allied army and the partisans...
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Trust Me!
as NicolasMax, an illusionist as unlucky as he is skilled, would like to marry his boss's daughter, but...
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The Terror with Cross-Eyes
as Commissioner PignaTo gain fame quickly - three actors - Mino, Giacinto and Mirella, stage a fake murder (Mirella...
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The Sleeping Sentinel
as ConstantIn 1812, Napoleon I set off for the Russian Campaign and planned to spend a night in...
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A Dog, A Mouse and a Sputnik
as uncreditedA French animal lover protects a dog and a mouse wanted by Soviet scientists for their space...
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I've Had It
as Mr. de ChatiezA Parisian named Cartier living in Quebec City and employee of a major English Canadian...
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The Great Gadget
as CopecA scientist from the East happens in France where it is supposed to improve one of his...
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Easy Come Easy Go
as FélixÉdouard and Félix, two inseparable friends, live off the times and do odd jobs, sharing a tiny...
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Life is beautiful
as un voisinParis, 1956. Everything is going smoothly for Roger, married to Denise, and Paul, married to...
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Midnight... Quai de Bercy
as M. Boulay, l'épicier libidineuxHaving recently moved into her new apartment, Irène Cazenave, the widow of a well-known police...
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Les malabars sont au parfum
as IvanovAll sorts of spies are buzzing around Michel, whose cow, Dorothée, produces 200 liters of milk a...
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The Motorcycle Cops
as His Excellency CuracaguaMarc, a motorcycle brigadier, is engaged to the charming Véronique. But his future...
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Qu'est-ce qui fait courir les crocodiles ?
as Hector GrogenolTo replace Hector Grofenol, the tyrannical boss of the "Tout pour le camping" factory, who has...
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Il furto è l'anima del commercio!?...
as SigfridLibero Sbardelloni, newly married, cannot find work in Rome, so he moves to Naples, where Baron...
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The Killer is Listening
as SelfApril fools in a studio where a radio host pretends to shoot dead all the performers....till a...
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Hitch-Hike
as le douanier belgeAgathe, 18, dreams of change. Gone are her vacations on the rainy beaches of Belgium! She...
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Frédérica
as Ami de GilbertGilbert, poet and singer, is about to marry Lilette but deep inside himself he is not quite sure...
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Who Stole the Body?
as ÉdouardEdouard and Félix work in a real estate agency. One day, they are threatened with dismissal if...
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Good Enough to Eat
as GillesRose Chaperon is asked by her confectioner mother Mathilde to bring jewels to her sick...
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La Dernière Bourrée à Paris
as Gaston PayracYoung Berthe, deeply moved by a cinema screening of the notoriously sultry Le Dernier Tango à...
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The Virgins
as M. de BrétevielleThe story of five girls that lose their virginity.
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Chance at Love
as Adjutant (segment "Chance du guerrier, La")Four sketches revolving around the themes of luck and love.
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A Whale That Had a Toothache
as FrancisBernardette is feeling bored in a country house. She decides to send weekend invitations to a...
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Les gros bras
as Mr. Pédro AndromèzeMadame Andromèze's diamond bracelet has been stolen from the plane taking Nicole from Rome to...
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The Abominable Man of Customs
as ArnakosTwo rival gangs fight over drug trafficking. An American killer named Timetti Le Muet arrives at...
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The Little Professor
as General overseerNaturally optimistic and mischievous, Jérôme Aubin crossed the time of his adolescence, around...
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Scandal Man
as uncreditedMarc, is a reporter in a tabloid. At the "Bongo Club", he photographs a young blond woman...
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Little Girls and High Finance
as uncreditedA low level official and a prostitute both try to commit suicide and fail, afterwards he becomes...
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The Sad Sack
as Jean du Bois d'OmbellesThanks to a bit of string-pulling by his aunt, Jean du Bois d'Ombelles, a young recruit who has...
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The Hideout
as EdouardSet during World War II in France, the story begins when a resistance fighter is given shelter...
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Match contre la mort
as uncreditedThe Lourmel couple are taking part in the final round of a TV game show: the wife has to answer...
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Les pieds nickelés
as Commissaire LenoirThree tramps in search of adventure and fortune decide to try their luck at swindling. After an...
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OK Patron
as Victor Hutin, le père de SophieMario, the head of the Mafia in France, has just been mortally wounded. His "companion" decides...
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Faites donc plaisir aux amis
as MaximilianoJean-Louis, a garage worker and womanizer, asks his friend and boss to reverse roles for a...
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Poussez pas grand-père dans les cactus
as Alphonse Ramier / Al GregorAlphonse flees to Paris to escape his wife's despotism. Intoxicated by the frenzied pace of...
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The Girl of a Thousand Months
as Commendator BorgioliA fashion designer rents his villa to a woman before leaving to go abroad. The daughter of the...
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The Bear
as ChappuisA mild-mannered zookeeper has to contend with his tyrannical boss and a talking lovesick bear.
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Un merveilleux parfum d'oseille
as Loïc de KerfuntelBaron Yves de Kerfunte learns of his uncle's death. Overjoyed, he is astonished to discover that...
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Les 100 vies de Francis Blanche
as Self (archive footage)Comedian, actor, author, director and emblematic figure of the French stage and cinema of the...
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Requiem pour un caïd
as EmilePolice officer Antoine Delille is in charge of putting an end to the activities of a "kingpin",...
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Les Gorilles
as FélixA confused pair of airport luggage carriers get involved in the disappearance of some suitcases.
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Le bourgeois gentil mec
as SpinosaMonsieur Gentil runs a perfume factory. He is a shy man, bullied by Madame Marthe, the manager,...
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Long Live the Duke!
as uncreditedA Belgian village is struck by repeated flooding, all this because they lack a new sewer. But...
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Aux frais de la princesse
as uncreditedThe Eloi family, who have just won the "model family" competition, set off for winter sports....
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Ils ont vingt ans
as Michel BarbarinThe former "J3" who used to be pupils at the Coutances high school are currently students in...
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Les gros malins
as Francis Bertolde aka 'Le book'Paul Blanc runs a butcher's shop with his Neapolitan wife, the vivacious Giulia. One night,...
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I. You. They.
as Darbon, le galeristeLittle did this pretty brunette know when she applied for a babysitting job that her employer...
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Le canard en fer blanc
as Le docteur GregoIn South America, airplane pilot François Cartier is searching for treasure for a group of...
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The Real Bargain
as uncreditedThe eccentric Comtesse de Saint-Plâs sells a black Citroën DS to car dealer Paul Souflé. He...
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Les Livreurs
as FélixThese two friendly delivery boys from a Parisian department store not only take their job to...
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Accroche-toi, y'a du vent!
as uncreditedA self-taught amateur detective who learned his trade from a book finds himself caught between...
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The Indestructible
as uncreditedAugustin Robustal and his wife Lilane run the riverside café "Au joyeux gardon" and if the...
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Pas de caviar pour tante Olga
as uncreditedRosa, a housekeeper in a NATO office in Paris, steals a micro film for her lover whom she hopes...
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Pierre Dac et Francis Blanche : Le Meilleur du Parti d'en Rire
as Lui-même
