L’Invité surprise (1989) - film review

During the transmission of a live “game show”, a surprise guest is shot by an armed assassin.  The victim, Martin Gaillard, recounts the bizarre series of events that led to this extraordinary denouement.  Only a few days ago, Martin was a mere tourist guide who supplemented his income by selling the paintings of his adopted father, Charles, a former police chief.  Martin’s instant rise to celebrity came when he witnessed a car bombing.  He wasted no time publicising his knowledge of the crime, implicating the French security services in a racist plot.  Naturally, Martin has soon made some enemies in some very high places…

L’Invité surprise sees director Georges Lautner return to the genre that earned him his celebrity in the 1960s, the comedy thriller.  However, this is no Tontons flinguers – the plot is excessively convoluted, the dialogue is third rate, and the result resembles more a bland American television crime drama.  There are a few good laughs along the way, but these are too few and far between to make the film worth watching.  Even such stars as Jean Carmet and Michel Galabru are reduced to parodying themselves in a clumsy attempt to inject some comedy into the proceedings.  The film has a few nice ideas (such as telling the story from the perspective of a supposedly dead man), but it is all a bit of a muddle, visibly lacking the energy, sophistication and flair of Lautner’s better films.  Fortunately, Victor Lanoux and Eric Blanc are on fine form and work well as the odd-ball father and son.

© James Travers 2005

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