The Man with One Red Shoe (1985)

A man picked randomly out of a crowd is made the target of CIA survelliance and pursuit.

Director:

Stan Dragoti

Writers:

Francis Veber (screenplay "Le grand blond avec une chaussure noire"), Yves Robert (screenplay "Le grand blond avec une chaussure noire")

Stars:

Tom Hanks, Lori Singer, Dabney Coleman

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Tom Hanks	...	Richard
Dabney Coleman	...	Cooper
Lori Singer	...	Maddy
Charles Durning	...	Ross
Carrie Fisher	...	Paula
Edward Herrmann	...	Brown (as Ed Herrmann)
Jim Belushi	...	Morris
Irving Metzman	...	Virdon
Tom Noonan	...	Reese
Gerrit Graham	...	Carson
David L. Lander	...	Stemple
Ritch Brinkley	...	Hulse
Frank Hamilton	...	Edgar
Dortha Duckworth	...	Natalie
David Ogden Stiers	...	The Conductor

Storyline

Cooper, the deputy director of the CIA, wants to be the director. So, he tries to make it appear that the director is corrupt so that he will resign or be removed. The director appears before a committee and asks for some time to prepare his defense. The director goes home and asks his man Brown to join him. He then shows Brown that Cooper is bugging him. That's when he decides to turn the tables on Cooper by feeding him some false information. And that information is that there's a man, who might be able to clear him of the charges against him, will be arriving at the airport, so he tells Brown to meet him. The Director tells Brown to just pick someone who is arriving at the airport thus making Cooper believe that he is the man who can help the director. Brown picks Richard cause he is wearing mismatched shoes, one of them being red. So Cooper sets up surveillance on Richard and sends his femme fatale, Maddy to come on to him and find out what he knows. While Maddy is playing, ...

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Plot Keywords:

mistaken identity | cia | shoe | red shoes | spy spoof | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Thriller

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

19 July 1985 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Tall Blond Man

Filming Locations:

Port of Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$16,000,000 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$8,600,000

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twentieth Century Fox

Technical Specs

Runtime:

92 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The name of the intelligence organization was the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

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Goofs

Two agents shot three darts into Richard's butt. An agent removes one dart but when we see Richard lying on the floor, no darts are visible.

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Quotes

Ross: [Talking about Cooper] He made the mousetrap himself. All we did was feed him a piece of cheese.
Brown: About this piece of cheese, sir. What's going to happen to him?
Ross: What?
Brown: Wouldn't it bother you to send an innocent man to his grave?
Ross: Are you serious? We're talking about my career.
Brown: But I'm the one who picked him, sir.
Ross: Don't tell me you're having a guilty conscience.
Brown: It was his shoe. I could have picked a black man with a green raincoat. There was a Japanese guy with five cameras. I could have picked ...
[...]

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Alternate Versions

The video version in 1986 was cut by 5 seconds in order to receive a "PG" rating from the BBFC with edits made to shots of workmen sniffing white powder from a cocaine-covered car during the opening sequence. In 2004 all cuts were reinstated and the video was re-rated "15".

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Connections

Referenced in Castle: Slice of Death (2011)

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Soundtracks

Scheherezade
Music by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

User Reviews

Spies are US

If there is a lesson to be learned by Hollywood is not to try to remake whatever was already made, and better. Which seems to be a lesson American movie people seem to forget. The criteria might be that the original film didn't reach a wide American audience, thus the reason for the remake, but frankly, neither Stan Dragoti, the director, or Robert Klane, its adapter, put a dent in what Francis Vever and Yves Robert achieved with the original.

Then again, if one hasn't seen the French film of the same name, this comedy will appear to be the real thing. In fact, there are hardly any laughs in the film. The best sequence involves the Richard and Maddy in the seduction scene where some of her hair is caught in a zipper.

In a way, this was Tom Hanks' third film as a lead man. One can't blame him because he is bogged down by a screen play that could have been better. Tom Hanks pales in comparison with the original Pierre Richard, who was a better comedian.

The cast shows several familiar faces, Dabney Coleman, Charles Durning, Edward Herrmann, John Belushi, but ultimately the ones that fare better in the film are Lori Singer and Carrie Fisher in smaller roles, but ones that afford these two actress good opportunities in which to shine.

Stick with the original version if you can find it in DVD format.