La Chèvre
Directed byFrancis Veber
Written byFrancis Veber
Produced byAlain Poiré
StarringPierre Richard
Gérard Depardieu
Music byVladimir Cosma
Release dates
  • 9 December 1981 (1981-12-09) (France)
  • 1 December 1982 (1982-12-01) (Mexico)
Running time
95 minutes
CountriesFrance
Mexico
LanguagesFrench
Spanish
Box office$ 56.6 million

La Chèvre (English title: Knock on Wood, literal translation: The She-goat) is a 1981 French buddy cop comedy film written and directed by Francis Veber, starring Pierre Richard and Gérard Depardieu. It is the first of three films featuring Richard and Depardieu as a comic duo.

An American remake of this film was made in 1991, starring Martin Short and Danny Glover, entitled Pure Luck.

Plot

La Chèvre features Depardieu as tough-guy private detective Campana, hired to find Marie, the daughter of a rich businessman, who has mysteriously disappeared while vacationing in Mexico. The case turns out to be complicated – several attempts to find her have already failed. A psychologist, Meyer, who works for the businessman, suggests a plan: Marie is known to be extremely unlucky and accident-prone; therefore, the psychologist advises sending someone equally unlucky and accident-prone to find her on the theory that what happened to her may also happen to him, and thus, following her steps while the detective tags along, the daughter can be found and returned home. Richard's character Perrin is an awkward, accident-prone accountant who works for the businessman, and is chosen to implement the scheme while being made to believe that HE is actually in charge of the investigation. While Campana does not believe in luck and is extremely skeptical about the plan's success, he goes along with it. The adventures of the serious detective and unlucky guy begin, with, amazingly, each misfortune Perrin suffers along the way bringing the duo one step closer each time to finding their quarry...

Cast

Release history and facts

International publication date
CountryTitleDate
 France La Chèvre 9 December 1981
 Norway Den ville jakten 9 March 1982
 Germany Der Hornochse und sein Zugpferd
Ein Tolpatsch kommt selten allein (TV title)
19 March 1982
 Netherlands Twee pechvogels in de rimboe 15 July 1982
 Portugal Que o Diabo Seja Surdo 15 July 1982
 Mexico Mas locos que una cabra 1 December 1982
 Spain La cabra 20 December 1982 (Madrid)
 Italy La capra 13 February 1983
 Uruguay Mala pata 16 June 1983
 Soviet Union
 Russia
Невезучие 2 December 1983
1997 (video release)
 Hungary Balfácán 14 June 1984
 United States The Goat
Knock on Wood
26 July 1985
 Denmark Geden 26 July 1987 (French Film Week)
 Canada
French
La Chèvre
Pas de chance (alternative French title)
4 March 2003 (DVD premiere)
 Belgium La Chèvre 27 June 2019 (Brussels International Film Festival)

The movie is infamous in Italy for the Cinema Statuto fire in Turin in which it was projected, killing 64 people.

Reception

The film received favorable reviews, with praise for Richard and Depardieu's performances, story and humour. The film was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film of 1985 by the U.S. National Board of Review of Motion Pictures.[1]

References

  1. "1985 Award Winners". National Board of Review of Motion Pictures. 2016. Retrieved November 5, 2016.


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