Le coup du parapluie (1980) More at IMDbPro »

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.