L'Invité surprise (1989)
Directed by Georges Lautner

Film Review

L'Invité surprise sees director Georges Lautner return to the genre that he virtually made his own in the 1960s, namely the comedy thriller. Alas, this latest zany Lautner offering is no Les Tontons flingueurs or Ne nous fâchons pas, but rather a somewhat half-baked comedy that gets tangled up in its wild plot convolutions and ends up looking like a second rate American television crime drama with random gags thrown in. Judging by this film and some of the ones that preceded it, it looks as if Lautner has definitely lost his touch.

There are admittedly one or two good laughs along the way, but these are too few and far between to make the film worth watching.  Even such comedy heroes as Jean Carmet and Michel Galabru are reduced to parodying themselves in a clumsy attempt to inject some humour into the proceedings.  The gimmicky idea of having the story told from the perspective of a supposedly dead man is an obvious steal from Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard (1950) but it adds to the film's quirkiness and prevents it from being a routine policier.  Ultimately it is left to Victor Lanoux and Eric Blanc to salvage the film as best they can - a feat they just about manage to pull off as the odd-ball father and son.

Film Synopsis

Invité surprise is a popular reality TV show in which a man is apparently shot dead 'on air', to the consternation of a shocked audience.  The 'victim', Martin Gaillard, is in fact unharmed and goes on to relate his bizarre personal history.  It all began a few days ago, when Martin was an obscure Parisian tourist guide.  He supplements his income by selling canvasses painted by his adopted father, Charles Mazzena, a former police chief who was forced into early retirement after falling from grace.  Having witnessed a car bombing in front of a restaurant, Martin begins his own investigation, his only lead being a photograph of the supposed bomber.

Without delay, the young man hands over the negatives to a woman photographer to develop them, but before she can do so she is attacked and the incriminating photographs are taken from her.  This prompts Martin to wonder if the French security forces may have had a hand in the bombing.  Intrigued, Mazzena begins making enquiries of his own and learns, from an old informer, that the KGB are the ones who planted the car bomb.  Suspecting a state conspiracy, Martin airs his own opinions about the bombing in a radio broadcast, which immediately makes him and his adopted father the target of some mysterious hit-men.  It seems that someone in a position of power is very keen to see have Martin and Mazzena silenced for good...