Umbrella Coup (1980)
"Le coup du parapluie" (original title)

Director:

Gérard Oury

Writers:

Gérard Oury, Danièle Thompson

Stars:

Pierre Richard, Valérie Mairesse, Christine Murillo

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Pierre Richard	...	Grégoire Lecomte
Valérie Mairesse	...	Sylvette, alias Bunny
Christine Murillo	...	Josyane Leblanc
Gordon Mitchell	...	Moskovitz, le tueur
Gérard Jugnot	...	Frédo
Maurice Risch	...	Le producteur de Paris
Dominique Lavanant	...	Mireille
Axelle Abbadie	...	Juliette, la fleuriste
Yaseen Khan	...	Radj Kahn
Didier Sauvegrain	...	Stanislas Lefort, dit Constantin Patakis, alias Pierre Juvet, dit 'La Folle'
Mike Marshall	...	Le docteur
Roger Carel	...	Salvatore Bozzoni
Vittorio Caprioli	...	Don Barberini
Gert Fröbe	...	Otto Krampe, dit La Baleine (as Gert Froebe)
Patrick Lecocq	...	Le journaliste télé

Storyline

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Plot Keywords:

riviera | mafia | mercedes benz | umbrella | hitman | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Crime

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Details

Country:

France

Language:

French

Release Date:

8 October 1980 (France)

Also Known As:

Umbrella Coup

Filming Locations:

Cannes, Alpes-Maritimes, France

Company Credits

Production Co:

Société des Etablissements L. Gaumont

Technical Specs

Runtime:

98 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Did You Know?

Trivia

Some of the secondary music (like the theme we hear in the answer-phone, or the one we hear on the radio) are taken from The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe.

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Goofs

In the latter part of the movie, when the car is leaving the airport car park, there is a van in the background with a poster on it which says "Gerard Oury et Pierre Richard en 'Le coup du parapluie".

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Quotes

Sylvette dite Bunny: What kind?
Grégoire Lecomte: 'Butch Cassidy', 'The Sting'...

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Connections

Spoofs From Russia with Love (1963)

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Soundtracks

"Happy Birthday To You"
Written by Patty S. Hill & Mildred J. Hill
Performed by the orchestra in the hotel

User Reviews

Light And Fluffy...and entertaining but don't see it if you hate slapstick.

Movie is about an Inspector Clouseau like actor (a lot of accidents seem to befall everyone who just happens to be around him--but never the man himself!!!) He ends up going into the wrong room during what he thinks is a slam dunk film audition---but is really a gangland hit setup---Much like Bill Murray in The Man Who Knew Too Little---the main character in "The Umbrella Hit" (as it was titled here where it screened at MOMA about a week or so ago) is mistaken for an awesome professional assassin by just about everybody he comes into contact with but is really a clueless idiot.

The three exceptions being his soon to be ex-wife (who thinks him just an idiot) the actual professional assassin who's following the actor the whole time (and ends up a victim of the actor's Clouseau like behavior the majority of the time.) and the actor's agent (who unknowingly assists him in this charade--he and the slap happy actor mistakenly think they're being sent to an island to make a movie co-starring the man the actor has been asked to kill....that should give you a sense of the film's humor--the actor actually mistakes the man he's supposed to rub out for a fellow actor!) The film has a number of set pieces where the actor prances around the scenery acting like he's putting on a show and generally clowning around when the person who's with him thinks he's a hired killer. He's given an umbrella whose tip is laced with poison (the poison in the umbrella automatically kills whoever the umbrella's tip comes into contact with.) which is bad news when this actor is using it playing around like he's Gene Kelley in Singing In The Rain...or playfully fencing with it with other people. (Altho there is a funny scene where he comes into contact with his ex wife's new lover and starts attacking him with the umbrella--its actually a suspenseful sequence.) Some of this is funny---some of it is just tiresome. I suppose it depends on your tolerance for Jerry Lewis/Peter Sellers/Jim Carrey like behavior. (carrying on like an idiot while actually being somewhat smarter then the people around you) Its a fun film to watch in general--but i wouldn't recommend it to anyone who hates slapstick or films with exaggerated misunderstandings that could easily be cleared up.

I rather liked the entire climatic sequence of the film where the actor finally gets to the home of his co-star/target and ends up in the same pool as him. (the target knows that the guy was sent to kill him and soon finds out that the guy thinks he's an actor sent to make a movie with him and tries to play off of it.) Its simultaneously a very suspenseful sequence (the real killer also crashes the scene) and a very entertaining one (as the actor keeps carrying on while everything is happening around him) Its not easy to merge two completely different tones while trying to keep everything light-hearted and fluffy but i would argue that Mr. Ouray managed to do just that.