The Umbrella Coup (Le Coup du parapluie)

Gérard Oury directed Le Coup du parapluie, released internationally as The Umbrella Coup, a 1980 French comedy with crime elements. Running about 95 minutes, it is Oury's second collaboration with Pierre Richard after La Carapate. Oury wrote the screenplay with Danièle Thompson, and Gaumont produced. Pierre Richard, Gordon Mitchell and Gert Fröbe star.

Richard plays Grégoire Lecomte, a minor, womanising actor whose career is mostly advertising spots. Grégoire goes to a meeting for the part of a hitman in a comedy film, but through a mix-up he is hired by real mobsters as a contract killer. He believes the 'contract' he signs is still his role in the film. Sent to Saint-Tropez, he is expected to eliminate an arms dealer at a party with an umbrella whose tip holds cyanide. Meanwhile the real killer, Moskovitz, is already on his trail, unknown to Grégoire.

The film took its starting point from assassinations of Bulgarian dissidents carried out with the so-called Bulgarian umbrella, and its working title was Le Coup du Parapluie Bulgare. It was shot at the Épinay Studios and on location around Paris, with sets by Jean André. Valérie Mairesse, Gérard Jugnot, Maurice Risch, Dominique Lavanant, Christine Murillo and Vittorio Caprioli are also in the cast.