Pleins feux sur Stanislas (1965)

Paris, 1965. Stanislas-Évariste Dubois, a former secret agent almost against his will, has decided to retire and write the third volume of his “Memoirs of a Very Secret Agent.” His book has won the Barbouzes Award, and he presents it on television during a literary program. The next day, he is astonished to read a scathing, bitter, and ironic review of his work, signed with the pseudonym “Rameau’s Nephew.” Furious, he rushes to the offices of the newspaper Le Figaro to confront the article’s author. He meets Rameau’s secretary, but later discovers, at a charity ball, that the “secretary” and the “nephew” are one and the same: a charming blonde named Bénédicte Rameau, whom he wants to court. As he walks her home, they find a gravely wounded man in the building’s lobby. While Stanislas goes out to call the police, the man whispers his last words in Bénédicte’s ear: “the Thirteen” and “Coffin.” He dies. Bénédicte barely has time to go outside and find Stanislas and the police before the corpse disappears: a mysterious ambulance has taken it away. It is later found in a lake in the Bois de Boulogne and identified as a man named Nikita Vesnourian. If the first phrase, “the Thirteen,” seems to refer to Colonel de Sailly, Stanislas’s former chief, and to the name of an international espionage organization called the “13 Columns,” in which the Chinese play an important role, the second word, “Coffin,” means nothing to anyone. The American, Russian, and British secret services, however, are themselves dealing with the “13 Columns” and are determined to find out, at any cost, what the dying man said to Bénédicte, who remains uncooperative with them. Stanislas returns to service. He has no choice but to follow the case, but once again he finds himself caught up in an adventure beyond his control. First, he finds his house ransacked, his servants and secretary tied up, and it is clear that someone wants to kill him: his tax collector dies after drinking a glass of poisoned whisky that was obviously meant for Stanislas. Then Bénédicte is kidnapped, and Stanislas himself is abducted. The two prisoners eventually escape without difficulty from a medieval castle and find refuge in the peaceful home of Monsieur Rameau, Bénédicte’s father, an elderly man with a heart condition who enjoys long naps. He is an entomologist, very proud of his precious collection of rare butterflies and fur-bearing animals, which does not survive the appalling destruction caused by the unexpected arrival of the “13 Columns” henchmen, who smash display cases and furniture during an epic fight with Stanislas. Meanwhile, through her own investigation, Bénédicte discovers a child’s doll whose head contains a mysterious microfilm, enabling the Colonel to have the “13 Columns” henchmen arrested. For his part, Stanislas meets Vladimir, Nikita’s brother, who is about to reveal the secret of the affair when he, too, is murdered. Then Rosine Lenoble appears. She is Vladimir’s fiancée and a chambermaid at the “Les Trois Couronnes” hotel in a town called Cercueil. Stanislas and Rosine go there discreetly, but he discovers that Bénédicte is there by chance, as are the British, Russian, and American spies, who have not given up and are still searching for valuable information. Stanislas and Bénédicte eventually neutralize them and solve the mystery of “the affair”: it concerns a hotel register in a town named “Cercueil,” containing the complete list of the members of the “13 Columns.” The Vesnourian brothers had been trying to sell it to the Colonel, and it makes it possible to dismantle the espionage organization. Stanislas and Bénédicte can at last enjoy their love affair, and Stanislas finds that the predictions in his memoirs have come true.