The novel by Gaston Leroux depicted a mysterious secret society living in the catacombs of Paris ,the Talpa , speaking old French ;accustomed to living in the dark ,they became mutants:blind, a nose which has turned into a snout, twenty fingers ; their food is rats ;why "la double vie de Theophraste Longuet "? Because the famous brigand Cartouche has taken half of the hero's persona.
The film drastically wanders from the initial novel ; Tchernia and Asterix 's father Goscinny transferred the action to the seventies and opted for a comedy .Compared to their first effort ,"le viager" , it's perhaps less funny , more repetitive but not derivative in the contemporary cinema :using the same actors ( Serrault , Galabru,Carmet ) and adding colorful Noiret , this is definitely off the beaten track : in the seventies ,many mayors wanted their town modern ,not only in Paris. The civil engineering secretary (Charles Denner) has ambitious but questionable plans: to drain the river Seine to build a super highway which will cross Paris ;two buildings will surround Notre Dame De Paris! (the Middle Ages meet the twentieth century!)
The society who lives underground in Leroux 's novel will turn into champions of the old gai Paris ; hostage-taking (the bookseller's daughter, twenty tourists they use to produce electricity by riding bikes ) and blackmail :they will free them only if the politician give up their works which spoil the Parisian landscape ; gaspard is another word (invented in the film) for "rat ";but ,unlike in the novel,they do not eat rats ,but epicurean Noiret has good meals with his guests and he's a wine connoisseur.
The national heritage preservation is still relevant today ,that's why Tchernia's movie has worn well.
Leroux's novel was adapted as a more faithful miniseries by Yannick Andréi with Jean Carmet as the lead this time in the late seventies .
