Les Enquêteurs associés is a light-hearted French 13 x 26-minute colour detective series shown from September, 30 to October, 21 1970 on the Deuxième chaîne of ORTF (1) and co-produced by Gaumont Télévision International, Mafilm (for Magyar Televízió), Studio Hamburg, Onyx Films (for Radio Canada) and Toei (for NET Tokyo). It is based on an original idea from playwright, actor and director Robert Thomas. Thomas met fame in 1960 with his murder mystery play Piège pour un homme seul, which was translated in 15 languages and was almost turned into a film by Alfred Hitchcock (2). His first play, Huit femmes (1958, revised in 1961), was adapted many times, including as the 2002 movie by François Ozon.
For television, Robert Thomas wrote episodes of L'inspecteur Leclerc enquête (1962) and Les cinq dernières minutes (in 1967). The first episode of Les Enquêteurs associés was penned by Jacques Armand (Corsaires et Flibustiers). Countess Olga de Charance, the widow of a colonel, is caught in a shootout between gangsters. The police finds the dead body of an engineer in a nearby bar, where Olga arrives to testify. Ariane Spuller visits the countess to learn more about what happened to this engineer, her tutor. Olga de Charance decides to investigate and meets a resourceful young man only known as La Carpe. A steward named Michel Wiener saves her from a kidnapping. Once the mystery is cracked, the countess sets up the Incognito investigation agency with Ariane, La Carpe and Michel.
The character of Countess Olga de Charance was specifically written for Maria Pacôme. Revealed by the play Oscar in 1958, the actress made a name for herself in the "théatre de boulevard" as exuberant ladies from the bourgeoisie. Before Les Enquêteurs associés, Maria Pacôme had roles in popular French comedy movies Le Gendarme de Saint-Tropez (1964) and Les Tribulations d'un Chinois en Chine (1965). She played in several television productions, including Au théâtre ce soir (3). After the series, Maria Pacôme pursued a brilliant career on stage, in films such as Le Distrait, Les Sous-doués and La Crise, and on TV (Docteur Sylvestre). Tired of being typecast, she decided to write her own plays (Le Jardin d'Éponine, Les Seins de Lola...) while remaining an actress.
Ariane is portrayed by Maria Latour, noticed in the drama Foncouverte (1965) and Luis Buñuel's film Belle de jour (1967). German actor Bruno Dietrich, winner of a Deutscher Filmpreis award in 1966, plays Michel. His resume includes participations in two Angélique movies and the TV series Derrick, Paul Temple, Hamburg Transit, Les Brigades du Tigre, Miss, Manni, der Libero or The Dirty Dozen. Richard Guimond-Darbois, better known as Richard Darbois, is La Carpe. Born in Montreal, Darbois is the son of comedian and actor Olivier Guimond and singer Jeanne-d'Arc Charlebois (aka Jeanne Darbois), two French Canadian stars. His mother and him left Canada for France in 1955 when he was 4. The actor made his debut on stage as a child and he was only 17 when Les Enquêteurs associés was shot. The same year he played in Sébastien et la Mary-Morgane, aired in 1970 by ORTF.
Then Richard Darbois worked on stage again (Madame Jonas dans la baleine, 1971) before appearing in adult films for the rest of the decade. Since the 1980s, he's a dubbing actor and a voice artist. Richard Darbois is the French voice of Harrison Ford, Richard Gere, Danny Glover, Jeff Goldblum, Buzz Lightyear or Genie in Aladdin (to name a few). He can be heard in the jingles of a well-known French radio and he's the announcer of Danse avec les Stars. After their first official case, the investigators of the Incognito agency fly to Hungary. In Budapest, they watch over a duo of clowns. Olga and Michel protect an old lady in the Hungarian countryside. Back in France, the detectives help an ex-convict framed for murder and investigate the death of a client whose husband wanted to divorce. In Hamburg, Olga is hired by a kleptomaniac young woman and the team must solve the mystery of a key.
The sleuths return to Budapest as technical advisors on a film, before a mission in Montreal and a Canadian weekend in an inn. Ariane and La Carpe convey a painting to Japan. In the French Alps, Michel's holidays are disrupted by a strange man. Among the authors of Les Enquêteurs associés, some previously worked on L'Inspecteur Leclerc enquête: Robert Thomas, Frédéric Valmain, Jacques Canestrier, Pierre Nivollet and Jean-Luc Terrex. Francis Veber, later scriptwriter and director of numerous hit comedies, penned one episode. The other writers are Marcel Jullian (Le Cerveau, Docteur Caraïbes), Albert Husson, Nagaharu Okuyama and the series producer Étienne F. Laroche. Serge Korber, director of the Louis de Funès vehicles L'Homme orchestre (1970) and Sur un arbre perché (1971), helmed the five French episodes and the two German episodes of Les Enquêteurs associés.
Directors Gilles Grangier (Le cave se rebiffe) and Tamás Rényi (Tales of a Long Journey) did the three Hungarian episodes. The two Canadian episodes were filmed in February 1969 at the lake Memphremagog, the Lantern inn (Magog), Derval and Montreal (4), under the direction of Jean Salvy (Les Dossiers de l'Agence O). The French writer and director settled in Quebec in 1972. His couple of episodes were actually aired in reverse order (5). Filming in Hungary started after the Canadian part (6). Tatsuo Yamada directed the only Japanese episode. Future renowned theatre director Bernard Murat (credited as Jean-Claude Murat), Fernand Berset, Marcel Dalio, Malka Ribowska, Yves Massard, Maurice Sarfati or Jean Lefebvre guest starred in Serge Korber's episodes. Berset and Lefebvre played in his movie Un idiot à Paris (1967).
The Hungarian guest cast includes György Bárdy (The Gravy Train goes East), Hilda Gobbi (Hahó, a tenger!), Bela Ernyey, etc. Some actors of the German episodes (Hans Gosslar, Benno Hoffmann, Hans Paetsch...) appeared in other series from Hamburgische Film-und Fernsehproduktion GmbH/Studio Hamburg like Cliff Dexter (1966-1968), Polizeïfunk ruft (1966-1970), or Percy Stuart (1969-1972). Gérard Poirier, Jean LeClerc (All my Children, Loving), Patricia Nolin (Les Atomistes) or Guy Hoffmann can be seen in the Canadian episodes. Shinzuke Mikimoto (Sûpa jaiantsu) and Akiko Koyama are in the Japanese episode. The talent of Maria Pacôme and the enthusiasm of her young partners are the only reasons to watch the uneven Les Enquêteurs associés.
Though devised by specialists of mystery and comedy, the stories hardly fit into the 26-minute format. There are continuity issues (the kleptomania of La Carpe is not mentioned again after episode 1). The personality of Olga de Charance changes after the beginning of the series. ORTF's Deuxième chaîne aired Les Enquêteurs associés during the afternoon. In Germany, it was called Detektivbüro Argusauge and shown in 1971-1972 on NDR and RB. The music of the series was composed by François de Roubaix and arranged by Bernard Gérard. Robert Thomas recycled plot elements of Les Enquêteurs associés in his series Un curé de choc (1974). The play Piège pour un homme seul is currently performed in Paris at Le Théâtre de la Michodière.
(2) Piège pour un homme seul was adapted for television as One of My Wives is Missing (1976) and Vanishing Act (1986), among others.
(3) Au théâtre ce soir (1966-1986) is a famous French television programme which showed pre-recorded plays.
(4) (5) Le Petit Journal, 17 février 1969.
(6) La Presse, 6 mars 1969.
https://www.michodiere.com/evenement/piege-pour-un-homme-seul/
https://www.wymark.org.uk/trap.html (A British version of Piège pour un homme seul)
