The Toy (1976)

It demonstrates in an original and at the same time very simple way that True Love is more important than all the money in the world. Tiny Fabrice Greco is brilliant in the role of the super-spoiled child, but who needs parental love more than anything. Grand Michel Bouquet, as usual, has a memorable role. "Big Blonde" Pierre Richard, is very good. Jacques François too plays a subtle role.

I saw this movie in French when I was 12 yo, and then a year after with Spanish subtitles. I watched I believe, 3 or 4 times over a two week vacation.It is a movie that I wish my children had seen in the same context I watched it. It is a movie that teaches a very strong message in a very funny way. Values were prevalent in the French movies of back then, nowadays sex and scandal have taken over.Pierre Richards is phenomenal in this movie. It became part of only a handful of movies that I watched as a child that I still remember.We need in the US to find a more expedite way to watch foreign films. The offer is simply just an insignificant part of what is out there. Netflix does not carry it. We need a distributor!

(IMDB summary corrected for grammar and augmented.) When Francois, a journalist, tours a big store for an article, he is chosen by the son of the newspaper's owner, Rambal-Cochet, as his new toy. Needing money and unwilling to quit his job, Francois agrees to this ridiculous assignment. Gradually befriending the spoiled boy, he induces him to play at making a newspaper, unveiling publicly the tyrannical way of life of the father. The powerful emotional climax we experience with the child astonishes both men.This funny, thoughtful film is much better than its American remake and deserves wider recognition.

This movie has unfortunately been unavailable in the US. It served as the basis for the later US film, The Toy (star, Richard Pryor) but retained an integrity and beauty that was lost in the US remake. Pierre Richard plays the part of a man who has been purchased as a plaything for a rich man's son -- and manages to turn the role around in such a way that the young boy learns in a subtle but unmistakable fashion that all human beings are deserving of dignity and respect. A top notch performance by Pierre Richard, surpassing any of his later films (Tall Blonde Man, Comperes, etc.). I urge you to try this one out!