The Pope Must Die
Time Out says
Coltrane plays a portly priest appointed Pope due to a clerical mix-up: Father Albini is a smiling front-man for the masons, mafiosi and gunrunners who run the Vatican Bank, while Father Albinizi (Coltrane) is a rock'n'rolling, really rather useless priest holed up in a rural orphanage filled with photogenic bambini. Like John Goodman's King Ralph, Pope Dave I must locate reserves of greatness beneath his unpromising exterior; discover that the love of a good woman is incompatible with his office; and finally waddle back to obscurity. The Vatican he inherits is staffed by chain-smoking, poker-playing prelates with hip-flasks under their robes. Coltrane manages his few moments of Papal grandeur with something approaching true dignity, whether it's sweeping out the money-lenders from the Bank, delivering an impromptu sermon on the hellfire awaiting a jobsworth, or administering extreme unction. There are many good laughs, albeit of a rather simple-minded nature, but even by its own ludicrous standards the plot unravels helplessly towards the end. A pontiff's egg.
Details
Release details
Duration:
99 mins
Cast and crew
Director:
Peter Richardson
Screenwriter:
Peter Richardson, Pete Richens
Cast:
Robbie Coltrane
Beverly D'Angelo
Herbert Lom
Alex Rocco
Paul Bartel
Balthazar Getty
William Hootkins
Robert Stephens
Annette Crosbie
Salvatore Cascio
John Sessions
Peter Richardson
Adrian Edmondson
Beverly D'Angelo
Herbert Lom
Alex Rocco
Paul Bartel
Balthazar Getty
William Hootkins
Robert Stephens
Annette Crosbie
Salvatore Cascio
John Sessions
Peter Richardson
Adrian Edmondson