The Umbrella Coup

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)	8 October 1980
Running time	98 minutes
Country	France
Language	French

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 the so-called Bulgarian umbrella was used as a weapon. The working title of the film was Le Coup du Parapluie Bulgare.

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.

Cast

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

External links

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