- A hapless orchestra player becomes an unwitting pawn of rival factions within the French secret service after he is chosen as a decoy by being identified as a super secret agent.
- Two factions of the French Secret Service involve a seemingly normal orchestra player, Francois Perrin, into their battle as one side uses him as a decoy. Soon, agents are all over the place, and one of them, Christine, is sent to seduce Francois. Meanwhile, Francois has his own problems, tangled up in an affair with his best friend's wife.—Kumar
- Bernard Milan (Bernard Blier), the second-in-command of France's Counter-Espionage department, is out to discredit his chief Louis Toulouse (Jean Rochefort) so that he can supplant him. When a French heroin smuggler who has been arrested in New York claims that the drug smuggling was a secret mission on the orders of French Counter-Espionage (actually on Milan's orders), the resulting bad press reflects on Toulouse, who cannot prove that Milan was responsible. In retaliation, Toulouse hatches a plot to deal with his ambitious subordinate: in a room which he knows is filled with hidden microphones, he sends his assistant Perrache (Paul Le Person) to Orly airport at 9:30 AM the next morning, making Milan (who has been listening) believe that Perrache has gone to meet a master spy who will expose Milan's treachery. However, Toulouse secretly instructs Perrache to choose someone at random from the crowd of travelers arriving at that time.
After considering several possibilities from the flight arriving at the specified time, Perrache selects François Perrin (Pierre Richard), an unsuspecting violinist, who is noticeable because, as the result of a practical joke played on him by his fellow orchestra members, he has arrived wearing a black shoe on one foot and a reddish-brown one on the other. Milan takes the bait and immediately begins a series of attempts to find out what Perrin knows-never ever realizing the fact that Perrin knows nothing at all about espionage (although he is an expert on music).
Milan's machinations involve Perrin in a series of increasingly peculiar adventures which he either avoids or escapes from by pure luck (which only confirm Milan's increasingly paranoid suspicions), and although Perrin is largely oblivious to the mayhem occurring around him he can't help noticing Milan's top agent, the beautiful femme fatale Christine. Adding to the confusion is the fact that Perrin is having an affair with Paulette Lefebvre (Colette Castel), the wife of his best friend Maurice (both of whom are musicians in the same orchestra as Perrin), and Maurice, upon accidentally hearing a recording of Perrin and Paulette having torrid sex (made by Milan's agents and listened to inside a floral delivery truck), jumps to the mistaken conclusion that Paulette is having an affair with a florist. All the time, Toulouse and Perrache watch the chaos serenely, although Perrache is troubled by his chief's callousness toward the risk that Perrin might be killed.
In a startling scene, Christine greets Perrin at her apartment's front door in a demure high-necked black-velvet dress, then turns around and shows that the dress is backless, displaying discreet buttock cleavage (a similar dress is seen once again-at a symphony concert-in the sequel film 'Le Retour du Grand Blond'). A slapstick love scene (watched by Milan and his cohorts on a television monitor) ensues, concluding with Milan's decision (despite Christine's belief that Perrin couldn't possibly be an agent) to have Perrin eliminated. More mayhem (including Maurice's learning the truth about his wife's affair) and treachery (including Christine's defection from Milan's group to save Perrin, with whom she has fallen in love) follow, climaxing in the deaths of not only agents from both Toulouse's and Milan's groups but also Milan himself, who only learns the truth about Perrin from Perrache just before he dies. Realizing how he has been fooled, Milan dies with a smile of appreciation. Maurice, who has repeatedly walked in on the aftermaths of the shoot-outs in Perrin's apartment, suffers a total mental breakdown.
The film ends as it began, at Orly airport. Perrin pushes a huge Louis Vuitton steamer trunk in an airport luggage cart, talking softly to Christine, who is hidden inside. Their destination is Rio, Brazil. Toulouse, who has been watching Perrin's departure on a monitor, instructs Perrache to contact Perrin when Perrin returns, remarking "After all, he handles himself pretty well."
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By what name was The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe (1972) officially released in India in English?
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