This Spy Comedy Is France’s Answer to James Bond

Move over, 007. Here comes 117.

Daniel Craig's final outing as James Bond caused quite a stir, as 2021's No Time To Die saw the daring secret agent [redacted]. The upcoming Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning - Part One and its sequel will end the long-running Tom Cruise series. Even Jack Ryan, most recently portrayed by John Krasinksi, will be hanging up his spy gear at the conclusion of the fourth season. All the spy franchises are ending, and a hole is opening up in our collective viewership. Luckily, there exists a series of films that have largely flown under the radar that can serve as a salve in these startling end times — the OSS 117 series.

Starting in 2006 and starring Academy Award-winner Jean Dujardin, the OSS 117 series follows spy Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath as he works for the External Documentation and Counter-Espionage Service, or more succinctly, the Office of Strategic Services. There have been three films in the series so far, with 2006's OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies, 2009's OSS 117: Lost in Rio, and 2021's OSS 117: From Africa with Love. All three of the films were co-written by Jean-François Halin, with the first two co-written and directed by Michel Hazanavicius and the third co-written and directed by Nicolas Bedos. If your detective skills have your foreign film senses tingling, you’re absolutely correct — these films are French.

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The history of the OSS 117 character dates all the way back to 1949, four years before the first James Bond adventure by Ian Fleming would see publication. All told, there have been 254 novels featuring the adventures of de La Bath, all written by the same family. Jean Bruce wrote the first 88, followed by 143 penned by his wife Josette after his passing in 1963. The last 23 were written by their daughter Martine along with her husband. A legacy so strong naturally drew the attention of the film circuit, and from 1957 to 1971 there were eight films made in France featuring the character. All the films were quite serious in tone, with de La Bath having many formulaic Bond-esque adventures. The OSS 117 films also predate the Bond franchise. The first James Bond feature, Dr. No, didn't release until 1962, whereas de La Bath's first adventure, OSS 117 Is Not Dead, released in 1957.

The EuroSpy craze of the '50s and '60s saw dozens of characters and films engaging in international espionage, and spy fatigue soon set in. As is often the case in film history, the antidote was humor. Films like 1967's Casino Royale with David Niven and Peter Sellers or 1966's In Like Flint with James Coburn had a laugh at the unscalable height of the espionage set pieces, the sheer grandiosity of the escapist adventures. The action and thrills got so big that the only logical reaction was to laugh at it, and as such cinematic clichés are cyclical, this idea resurfaced in the 1990s with the Austin Powers series from comedic madman Mike Myers and 2003's Johnny English with rubber-faced Rowan Atkinson. As parody proved more digestible, the resurgence of de La Bath brought to life a new perspective on an old trope, and the emergence of a fresh face that seemed ripped from the '60s.

Actor and comedian Jean Dujardin was selected to star as Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath largely due to his resemblance to a young Sean Connery. What might have been mere stunt casting turned into an act of kismet, as Dujardin is magnetic on the screen. Utilizing old cameras and filming techniques, 2006's OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies has all the crackle and fuzziness of a 1957 feature. Set in 1955, Cairo, Nest of Spies finds de La Bath in, well, Cairo, investigating the disappearance of a colleague and, well, dropped into a nest of spies. The character of de La Bath is notably franchouillard, or "typically French." He is chauvinistic, xenophobic, culturally illiterate, misogynistic, and generally deplorable — except that he's so damn charming. He's smooth, spry, capable, and lethal. He's a quick wit, a keen fighter, and an impeccable dancer. He's rarely fazed by any setback, whether it be a surprise attack from an enemy or an awkward cultural misunderstanding brought about by his own buffoonery. His ignorance is his bliss, and it's all telecast through a beguiling smile that would go on to win him an Oscar.

Michel Hazanavicius and Jean Dujardin might ring some bells in the more film savvy among you, as the 2011 Academy Award winners for Best Director and Best Actor, respectively, for The Artist. The film follows the successes and failures of a silent film screen star at the precipice of talking pictures making their debut. Dujardin won this prestigious accolade largely through the expressiveness of his face, a devilishly good-looking fellow who often appears out of time. If for no other reason, the OSS 117 film series is worth watching just for Dujardin's work, alone.

Much like Austin Powers, the OSS 117 series is a near-perfect trilogy. Cairo, Nest of Spies serves as an international roast, showcasing a French parody of myriad countries and cultures. Whether he's beating up a muezzin, misremembering the history of the Suez Canal, or underestimating the prevalence of Arabic, the first and foremost subject of ridicule is the French colonial mentality itself. Pairing up again only three years later for a story set 12 years later, Lost in Rio finds the panoramic beauty of Egypt swapped with the lush and vibrant beaches of Brazil. In this outing, de La Bath has an American counterpart, a CIA agent, who openly insults him to his face repeatedly in English believing the idiot Frenchman doesn't understand. It's a tongue-in-cheek indictment of American cockiness, and it works alongside the self-referential send-up of French elitism. Once again the film has active Nazi villains, which further proves that the world has rarely seen such enduring evil. Mossad agents in both films make these truly international affairs, and create a much more stylized and culturally vibrant film than their American or British counterparts.

Hazanavicius did not return for the third film, disagreeing with the script and Halin's refusal to allow the character to age, so Bedos stepped in for 2021's From Africa with Love. (Though we shouldn't feel too bad for Hazanavicius — his film Final Cut, a remake of the 2017 Japanese masterpiece One Cut of the Dead, is generating positive buzz ahead of its Tribeca Film Festival premiere.) Taking place in 1981, this most recent outing saw the world leap forward in cultural and social sensitivity, largely in the advent of women's rights and the backdrop of the Cold War. Dujardin is once again charmingly anachronistic, though the filmmaking techniques of yesteryear have been abandoned for a more modern take on retro cinema. Add to that the emergence of a young upstart within the agency, code number 1001, and one would think de La Bath would be rattled. Unfazed, Dujardin pilots the adventure with his signature smile and childlike whimsy, making this installment a perfect addition to the already brilliant series. De La Bath is given the opportunity to grow in small ways, much like his counterpart in Austin Powers, while retaining the overall pastiche of overconfidence that causes him to endure.

The OSS 117 series has been celebrated by its fans for years, and there's no conceivable reason why there may not be more stories to tell from Dujardin and Halin, whose pairing began the same year that Daniel Craig took up his numbers. If you’ve been looking for a genuinely hilarious and engaging departure from the bloated overly serious spy fare of the last decade, OSS 117 should be your international destination for globe-trotting espionage fun.

Eric McClanahan is a writer from a small town in SouthEast Texas. Growing up on a steady diet of Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Animaniacs, his brain is little more than sugar cereal now. He's been writing about film since 2018 and has interviewed over 70 creatives, including a "UFO Disclosure Activist." He is the singer for San Diego-based rock band Moosejaw and is currently at work on his memoir. He now resides in New Jersey with his wife Meredith and their cat, Bennie. If you can quote a line from 'Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy' upon meeting him he will fall head over heels in love with you. This cannot be undone, so use this power wisely. When not writing about film he manages a restaurant but continues to wait for his proverbial ship to come in so that he can focus full time on Nicolas Cage and Bruce Campbell and whatever the heck they're up to at any given moment.