The Pope Must Die

Independent Films, Film Profiles

The Pope Must Die (U.S. alternate title: The Pope Must Die(t)) is a 1991 comedy film starring Robbie Coltrane, Adrian Edmondson, Annette Crosbie, Alex Rocco and Peter Richardson who also directed.The plot is predicated on the Vatican being controlled by the Mafia. The movie opens with the death of the previous Pope and the Mob's tame Cardinal (Alex Rocco) successfully persuading the College of Cardinals to elect the Mafia's favoured candidate to the papacy, Albini.Unfortunately the secretary of the College of Cardinals (Adrian Edmondson) is hard of hearing, and announces the similar name of an honest parish priest, Albinizi, (Robbie Coltrane) who thus becomes Pope. As the plot develops, the Pope demands to see the Vatican accounts and discovers the gun-smuggling and stolen merchandise operations, and confronts the Mob, who decide that the Pope must die...