OSS 117: Cairo Nest of Spies

Introduction

It's 1955 and Egypt is in turmoil. French secret agent Jack Jefferson is murdered in Cairo in mysterious circumstances. Tasked to both go undercover and investigate is top secret agent Hubert Bonnisseur de la Bath (Jean Dujardin), otherwise known by his codename OSS-117. OSS-117 and Jefferson had history together, outsmarting Nazi's and playing swingball on the beach in bleached recap colour. Hubert's cover is as business partner in Jefferson's cover at large chicken factory S.C.E.P, where he teams up with beautiful secretary Larmina El Akmar Betouche (Berenice Bejo).



Sounds reasonable fodder for a spy thriller so far, but there's a problem. Whilst OSS-117, France's first line of defence in the Cold War, has all the attributes of a master spy a la 007 such as deadly weapon skills, expertise in hand-to-hand combat and an abundance of charm that makes him irresistible to women, he has a surfeit of brains and generally muddles his way to results. It also doesn't help that Hubert is a little distracted with his new factory of chickens, especially when he discovers that they only make a noise in light. OSS-117 tends to get a little distracted from his mission with a concern for his new feathered charges and an attempt to keep S.C.E.P ahead of his competitors in the chicken farming markets.

So we're left with an Inspector Clouseau-type character who, despite himself, manages to solve the murder and bring peace to the Middle East whilst entrancing a bevy of Middle Eastern beauties.

Overall

Whilst Ian Fleming's suave James Bond character has been around since 1953 saving the world, OSS-117 was created by French writer Jean Bruce four years earlier in 1949. The OSS-117character has been featured in 265 novels that have been translated into 17 languages, published in 21 countries and sold 75 million copies worldwide. Quite a pedigree, and that's not including the 8 feature films.

That's the past, what of the present and future? Well, the present saw this film do so well at the French box office that a sequel is already in the works to come out sometime in the future. So was it any good and does it translate well? Yes, actually it does. The film is set during a time when France believed it was still a major power, even after the Second World War, at a time when Britain thought the same despite evidence to the contrary that world power and influence was slipping away from both. It's a mickey take but Dujardin in particular is full of imperialist superiority of this era, and whilst this would have been the norm at the time, it is funny to even think our fellow countrymen and Allies ever held those views - and this despite massive evidence that an insular United States also feels the same even now.



Dujardin is superb in this role as the dim-witted fighting machine who seems to attract women without even trying, except his current partner Betouche who sees his anachronistic views as chauvinist. This is a real send up of the secret agent playboy that became the mark of both Fleming's creation and countless film and TV creations, probably more prevalent in the 60's than at any other time.

I loved this film and I have one last piece of advice. Steve Martin, if you want to impersonate one of the greatest bumbling detectives of all time (again), then watch this and take copious notes. This is how it's done.

Superb.