The Man with One Red Shoe Reviews

Americanizing a French winner (THE TALL BLOND MAN WITH ONE BLACK SHOE [1973]), this spy comedy stars Tom Hanks as Richard, a concert violinist given to wearing offbeat clothing--like one red shoe--which causes him to be picked at random as a CIA decoy. Because of interdepartmental politics, agency head Ross (Durning) fears that Cooper (Coleman) has designs on his job, so he sets up Richard to appear to as if he is a "superagent," when in fact he is just a hapless dope. From there on in, the rest of the film follows the plot of the original picture, with only the shoe color changing from black to red. What was a subtle farce when directed by Yves Robert in French becomes an overstated comedy here, with all the actors hamming it up to no end.