How Did You Get In? We Didn't See You Leave (Par où t'es rentré? On t'a pas vu sortir) is a 1984 French comedy film directed by and starring Philippe Clair (stage name of Prosper Charles Bensoussan).
Clovis Blaireau (Jerry Lewis) is a French private detective who is hired to spy on a cheating husband (Philippe Clair) by his wife (Marthe Villalonga). Although Clovis fails to gain any evidence that he is cheating, he does wind up becoming friends with the husband. They get involved with mobsters and flee to Tunisia. Once there they are mistaken for mobsters themselves, and get mixed up in a fast-food empire war.
This was one of two films that Jerry Lewis made in The '80s strictly for European release, they have never been released in the USA. Lewis stated that as long as he had control over distribution, they would never get a US release (no word has emerged since his passing). It was also the film debut of Connie Nielsen. Oh and, Alan Silvestri composed the score, right before he worked on Back to the Future. You read that right.
How Did You Get In? We Didnt See You Leave provides examples of the following tropes:
- The '80s: The film was made in that decade, and there's no better example of the setting than the aerobics club above Clovis' apartment, which is run by his mother.
- Disappeared Dad: Clovis' G.I. father went back to the USA, leaving the mother with a child, and never came back to France.
- During the War: Clovis was born from an American G.I. and a French mother. He was conceived inside a tank without contraception during the Liberation towards the end of World War II.
- Fat Comic Relief: The aerobics run by Clovis' mother is full of obese women exercising, and they cause earthquakes in Clovis' apartment below them when doing so.
- Foreign Culture Fetish: Since his dad, who he has never seen and plans to travel to the US to see, is American, Clovis developed a fetish for American culture, peppering his phrases with English words.
- Gasshole: Clovis' dog has flatulences, much to his mother's disgust.
- Hong Kong Dub: The Same Language Dub of Jerry Lewis poorly synchs with his mouth, to say the least.
- Informed Judaism: Clovis mentions being Jewish at one point.
- Meaningful Name: "Blaireau" is sometimes used in French with "dumbass" as meaning.
- Same Language Dub: Jerry Lewis didn't speak French, so his voice had to be dubbed.
- Shared Family Quirks: The G.I. who fathered Clovis during World War II was as clumsy as him.
