Customer Reviews

The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe + The Return of the Tall Blond Man - with ENGLISH subtitles (2 DVDs Gift Edition)

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Tom Hanks did a popular remake of this movie called "The Man With One Red Shoe." But believe me, it doesn't compare to this. The original is definitely best and the "Return of the Tall Blond Man" is a great companion to the original. The only tricky part is navigating the setup on your DVD player. This is a Russian DVD which must be setup for the original French language with English Subtitles. It sounds intimidating, but as long as you don't lose the directions which are enclosed, it is actually quite easy. The directions, though a little long, are very easy to follow and this movie is definitely worth a little effort. In case you are worried about the DVD quality of a foreign DVD, let me assure you that the actual DVD quality is excellent and I have no problems playing it on my either of my DVD players. I received the items quickly, they were well packaged, and like I said... the vendor included directions which were clear and easy to follow. Order these DVD's, make some popcorn, and have a great evening!

For those of you who are not familiar with the plot of this 35 year old pair of films, imagine the Monty Python group writing a satire of a John le Carre movie.

Technically the quality is first rate. The 16:9 presentation is visually and audio flawless. The first film has French audio and British English subtitles.

The second film has the additional interesting feature for amateur cultural anthropologists that the dubbed in audio is American English and the subtitles are British English. The contrast between these two fully illustrates the saying "Two peoples separated by a common language."

These are films I saw over 30 years ago and found very funny. It was a bit of a shock to find that the cover of the DVDs were printed in Russian! However with the instructions sheet inside the package I was able to see both films spoken in Franch with English subtitles. The films are still as funny as they were 30 years ago and the acting is superb as in most Franch comedies. They do a brilliant job of comedy. The first film is better then the second but are both well worth viewing. They are good enough to be able to view more than once. The 'hero' is a musician who is used without his being aware of it, as a supposed spy and the 'baddies' are trying to kill him. He is also having an affair with the wife of one of the other musicians in the orchestra and is taped while they are making love. The tape is heard by the husband who wants to kill him too. The rest is wonderful farce and hilarious.

I bought the set from "spstore" through Amazon. I receiced the set 3 days after I placed the order in excellent condition. The Picture and sound are excellent. Setting the player for English subtitles was easy and intuitive. I played the Sequel with no subtitles, as it is dubbed in American English, which was done very well.
We first saw The Tall Blond... when it was released in the theaters with English subtitles. I remember we laughed so hard, we wished for breaks so we can come up for air. Now after all these years we still laughed hard.
There is an American remake of the film with an excellent cast, staring Tom Hanks called The Man with One Red Shoe. That film is very well done and funny, but the original is clearly better, even with subtitles. Pierre Richard is one of the all time comedy greats. It is hard to imagine anybody else doung a better job as The Tall Blond. I am happy to add the Set to my comedy collection.
Amazon also gets 5 stars for handling flawlessly the transaction.

If you see only one French movie in your life, make it this one. The Tall Blond Man is rolling-in-the-aisles funny. The sequel is also very funny, but not quite as funny. Mind you, the sequel is funnier than many recent comedies from both sides of the Atlantic, but I can't think of a funnier movie than the original Tall Blond Man.