General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

La Cage aux Folles II

La Cage aux Folles II is a 1980 French-Italian comedy directed by Édouard Molinaro and the first sequel to La Cage aux folles (1978), in which the drag performer Albin and his partner Renato, owners of a Saint-Tropez cabaret, stumble into an espionage plot after Albin is slipped a stolen microfilm by a dying spy.¹ Michel Serrault and Ugo Tognazzi reprise their roles as Albin Mougeotte, stage name "Zaza Napoli", and Renato Baldi.² The film was released in France on 10 December 1980 and in the United States on February 15, 1981.¹^•³

Key fact	Detail
Release	10 December 1980 (France); February 15, 1981 (United States, MGM)¹^•³
Director and writers	Édouard Molinaro; screenplay by Francis Veber, Jean Poiret, and Marcello Danon, from Jean Poiret's characters⁴
Lead cast	Michel Serrault (Albin Mougeotte / "Zaza Napoli"), Ugo Tognazzi (Renato Baldi)²
Supporting cast	Marcel Bozzuffi (Broca), Michel Galabru (Simon Charrier), Paola Borboni (Mrs. Baldi), Benny Luke (Jacob)²
Music	Ennio Morricone⁴
Production	France and Italy; produced by Marcello Danon; about 101 minutes⁵
US box office	$6,950,125 domestic gross³
Reception	57% Tomatometer on Rotten Tomatoes (7 reviews); 2.5/5 spectator rating on AlloCiné⁶^•¹

Spoilers

Plot

The story opens at the couple's Saint-Tropez drag cabaret, where Renato tells Albin he is too old to keep performing the show's romantic numbers. To prove he can still arouse desire, Albin goes out in drag in broad daylight and sits at a sidewalk café.⁷ A young man who approaches him turns out to be a spy on the run from enemy agents; before he is killed by a poisoned dart, he slips a capsule containing a strip of microfilm into Albin's pocket.⁷

Albin and Renato, unaware at first of what they carry, become two of the most wanted people in France, hunted by both the police and the killers.¹ Broca, a French counter-espionage agent, recruits the couple under threat of prosecution to help recover the film, and the pair flee to Italy, where Renato's mother (Paola Borboni) lives and does not know the nature of her son's relationship.⁸ To pass in the rural village, Albin disguises himself as Renato's wife, a situation that reworks the masquerade of the first film in a rustic setting.⁷ The microfilm is finally recovered by Broca, and the couple are congratulated by Deputy Simon Charrier, the conservative father-in-law of Renato's son, who had previously refused to meet them for fear of scandal.⁸

Production and cast

The screenplay was written by Francis Veber, Jean Poiret, and Marcello Danon, with Poiret credited for the original characters from his 1973 play; Veber and Poiret had written the 1978 film together.⁴^•⁹ Marcello Danon produced, Ennio Morricone composed the score, Armando Nannuzzi was the cinematographer, and Luigi Scaccianoce was the production designer.⁴ The film was shot in France and Italy, with production companies Les Productions Artistes Associés and Da.Ma. Cinematografica.⁶^•⁵

Serrault had played Albin on stage and screen for roughly a decade by the time of the sequel, and his performance numbers include a Marlene Dietrich impression, a stint in macho drag as a gruff workman, and the peasant-wife disguise in Italy.¹⁰^•⁷ Marcel Bozzuffi, known for his role as the killer in The French Connection, plays Broca.⁷

Release and box office

The film opened in France on 10 December 1980, distributed by Les Artistes Associés, with United Artists handling international distribution.¹^•⁵ In the United States, MGM released it on February 15, 1981, and it grossed $6,950,125 domestically.³ The sequel followed the original 1978 film, which had become the most successful foreign-language film released in the United States to that point.¹¹ A contemporary trade review predicted it would "pick up fast boxoffice on its predecessor's reputation, but it won't share its longevity."¹²

Reception

Critical response was mixed and generally cooler than for the first film. On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a 57% Tomatometer from 7 reviews and a 53% audience score from more than 1,000 ratings.⁶ AlloCiné users gave it 2.5 out of 5 from about 530 ratings.¹ The Washington Post's Gary Arnold called it "a sluggish chase comedy" and wrote that the original "had a simplicity and cohesion that are lacking in the sequel."⁷ A Harvard Crimson review called it "even fluffier than its predecessor" and "a tiresome travesty of a film."¹³ Other critics were warmer: one San Francisco paper's reviewer concluded "The sequel is as good as the original," praising the films' assumption "that gay is normal, gay is funny, drag is normal, drag is funny,"¹⁴ and a Philadelphia Gay News review gave it 4/4, calling it "an upbeat gay movie with loveable characters and a happy ending."⁶ Frank J. Avella of Edge Media Network later graded it B−, writing that the heterosexual characters murder and deceive each other while the two gay leads simply love one another, a message of acceptance he called groundbreaking for 1980.⁶

Molinaro himself was candid about the project. He told American Film magazine that he liked the sequel even less than the original but made it because, in his words, "It was the only script I found last year—all the others were terrible."¹⁵

Place in the series

The film is the middle entry of a trilogy. It follows Molinaro's La Cage aux folles (1978), an adaptation of Jean Poiret's 1973 stage play, and was followed by La Cage aux folles 3 (1985), directed by Georges Lautner.¹⁶ The characters later reached a wider English-speaking audience through the 1983 Broadway musical and Mike Nichols's 1996 American remake The Birdcage, neither of which adapts the spy-plot of this sequel.¹⁷

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026