The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob (Papaz Kaçtı)

Directed by Gérard Oury, this 1973 French-Italian comedy stars Louis de Funès as Victor Pivert, a cynical, bigoted industrialist hurrying to attend his daughter's wedding. After a car accident on the way, he is swept into a power struggle in an Arab country and unwittingly frees the kidnapped revolutionary leader Mohamed Larbi Slimane. With assassins and French police on their trail, the two men steal the clothes and beards of the respected Rabbi Jacob, just back from America, and his fellow rabbi in order to hide. The disguise lands Pivert in the middle of Paris's Jewish quarter, triggering a chain of farcical misunderstandings. The final collaboration between Oury and de Funès, the film also features Claude Giraud, Suzy Delair and Marcel Dalio, with a score by Vladimir Cosma. Drawing around 7.3 million admissions, it led the 1973 French box office and was nominated for the 1975 Golden Globe for best foreign-language film. It remains a cult classic of French comedy and one of de Funès's most cherished roles.