In the seventies Pierre Richard was said to be France's cross between Jerry Lewis and Danny Kaye, and several films (including this and La Ch?vre, October 15) were built around his comic personality. He's the Teflon schlemiel whose unconsciousness renders him invulnerable to schemes bureaucratic or natural of which he is the perennial target. Here, Richard is a classical musician who is selected at random to become the pawn in a spy-vs.-spy ploy, watched like a specimen by all the high-tech equipment known to the "plumbing" industry. Critics and fans alike note that The Tall Blond Man... is a film obsessed with mechanics-the machine of modern times through which Richard glides and bumbles, and the mechanics of the gag.