Umbrella Coup

Umbrella Coup (Le Coup du parapluie, 1980) is a French crime comedy you can watch online on iFILM. Director Gérard Oury built the whole premise on one spectacular mix-up: struggling actor Grégoire Lecomte (Pierre Richard) goes to audition for a hitman role and wanders into an actual mob meeting by mistake.

He takes the don for a film producer and signs a contract without reading a word. His fee is an elegant umbrella — which conceals a syringe loaded with potassium cyanide. The plan: jab a weapons dealer at his birthday party in Saint-Tropez. Nobody bothers to mention to Grégoire that this is a real assassination. Gérard Jugnot and Gert Fröbe fill out the supporting cast with plenty of additional chaos on both sides. Pierre Richard's gift for escalating panic across the full length of a film is on full display here — the comedy rarely lets up once it starts. Stream Umbrella Coup (1980) on iFILM.