Tonight on TV: With more than 5 million viewers since its release, this thriller is one of Jean-Paul Belmondo’s biggest successes.

On the advice of his official producer, Alexander Mnushkin, Jean-Paul Belmondo begins the film adaptation of the book. Death of an animal with fragile skin By Patrick Alexander of Britain, which he called The Professional.

Production was immediately entrusted to Georges Lautner, who began his third collaboration with Belmondo after Flic ou rogue and Le Guignolo.

• Want another TV tip tonight? We recommend one of AlloCiné viewers’ favorite John Wayne westerns!

The story, with geopolitical overtones (this is the era of “Françafrique”), is the story of a French secret service agent who is ready to do anything to fulfill the mission assigned to him. In this case, kill the president of an African country, then pay an official visit to Paris.

With Jean-Paul Belmondo at the top of the bill, always full of energy, the film benefits from his delicious duel with Robert Hossein as the violent commissar, but also from a memorable car chase scene in the Trocadero. A spaghetti western note brought by Ennio Morricone’s music, the theme of which Chi MaiCreated a few years earlier, it became a real hit for Maddalena.

Despite the pessimism, to put it mildly, surprising in the filmography of “Bebel”, the film is a great success in theaters. released on October 21, 1981, Professional A total of 5.2 million was released at the box office. It is Jean-Paul Belmondo’s third biggest success after Le Cerveau (5.5 million admissions) and L’As des As (5.4 million admissions).

Professional Georges Lautner with Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Desailly, Robert Hossein…

from the age of 10

Tonight on France 3 at 21:10.