The Umbrella Coup

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The Umbrella Coup
Directed by	Gérard Oury
Written by	Gérard Oury Danièle Thompson
Starring	Pierre Richard Gordon Mitchell Gert Fröbe
Music by	Vladimir Cosma
Distributed by	Gaumont
Release date(s)	October 8, 1980
Running time	98 min
Country	France
Language	French
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

The Umbrella Coup (French: Le Coup du parapluie) is a 1980 French comedy film directed by Gérard Oury, starring Pierre Richard, Gordon Mitchell and Gert Fröbe.

The creation of the film was inspired by several assassinations of Bulgarian dissidents where so-called Bulgarian umbrella was used as a criminal instrument. The working title of the film was Le Coup du Parapluie Bulgare.

[edit] Plot

Grégoire Lecomte, the unlucky actor anxious to find a "real job", goes to take a screen test for a role of a killer, but gets to mafiosi by mistake. He takes their don for a producer, and they mistake him for a hitman with whom they had an appointment. Deluded Lecomte signs contract with them. He is supposed to kill gun dealer Otto Krampe at his birthday party in Saint-Tropez by piercing him with a cap of the umbrella with a built-in syringe with potassium cyanide. Lecomte is not aware that it has to be a real murder.

[edit] Cast

• Pierre Richard — Grégoire Lecomte
• Gordon Mitchell — Moskovitz
• Valérie Mairesse — Sylvette aka Bunny
• Christine Murillo — Josyane Leblanc
• Gert Fröbe — Otto Krampe aka Whale
• Gérard Jugnot — Frédo
• Vittorio Caprioli — Don Barberini
• Yaseen Khan — Radj Kahn
• Didier Sauvegrain — Stanislas Lefort aka Crazy
• Mike Marshall — The Doctor
• Roger Carel — Salvatore Bozzoni
• Dominique Lavanant — Mireille
• Maurice Risch — The Producer

[edit] External links

• The Umbrella Coup at the Internet Movie Database
• The Umbrella Coup/Le Coup du parapluie at the Cinemovies site
• The Umbrella Coup overview at the New York Times