La Chèvre

Francis Veber wrote and directed La Chèvre, a 1981 French comedy released in English as Knock on Wood (literally "The Goat"). Its main claim to fame is that it paired Pierre Richard and Gérard Depardieu for the first time, opening the run of three films in which the two worked as a comic duo. A buddy comedy with an adventure streak, it is a co-production between France and Mexico, with Malta also credited as a production country. Gaumont is the producing company, and the film runs about 94 minutes.

Richard returns as François Perrin, the character known from earlier films, here in his fifth screen appearance. Depardieu plays Campana, a figure who debuts in this film. Perrin, hopelessly accident-prone, and the companion who travels with him make their way through a chain of mishaps and misunderstandings, and the humour comes from the friction between the mismatched pair. The cast also includes Pedro Armendáriz Jr., Corynne Charby, Michel Robin, Robert Dalban and André Valardy, and the score is by Vladimir Cosma.

The partnership carried on in later years: Les Compères (1983) and Les Fugitifs (1986) reunited the same pair. La Chèvre itself was remade in the United States in 1991 as Pure Luck, starring Martin Short and Danny Glover.