The Pope Must Die

The Pope Must Die U.S. alternate title The Pope Must Diet is a 1991 comedy film directed by Peter Richardson and released by Palace Pictures with the backing of ChannelFilms. The script was written by Richardson with Pete Richens, derived from elements of an earlier screenplay for a threepart miniseries satirising the Catholic Church, which was rejected by Channel 4. The Pope Must Die stars Robbie Coltrane as a low ranking priest who is mistakenly elected Pope, then has to avoid being assassinated by the Mafia. The film costars Adrian Edmondson, Annette Crosbie, Herbert Lom, Alex Rocco and Richardson.

The plot is predicated on the Vatican being controlled by the Mafia boss Vittorio Corelli Herbert Lom. The movie opens with the death of the previous Pope followed by a deadlocked conclave that lasts fordays. The conclave is ended by the Mafias tame Cardinal Rocco Alex Rocco, who successfully persuades the College of Cardinals to elect in absentia the Mafias favoured candidate to the papacy, Albini Janez Vajevec, a priest in the service of the Mafia, whom Rocco passes off as an absent Cardinal Albini.Unfortunately for the mafia, the secretary of the College of Cardinals Fr. Rookie Adrian Edmondson is hard of hearing, and while recording the official results of the election, he misheard the popeelects name and instead of writing Cardinal Albini he writes down Cardinal Albinizi and Albinizi happens to be the similar surname of an honest parish priest, C. David Dave Albinizi, Robbie Coltrane. As a result, Fr. Albinizi becomes Pope and takes the name of Pope David I. Father Albinizi is an unorthodox priest, interested in cars, women and Rock and Roll. However, his interests in those are rather benign and not overly carnal. Prior to his ascent to the papacy, Albinzi had been a priest in an Italian orphanage, where he took a genuine interest in the childrens welfare and wished them to grow up enjoying the gospel, as opposed to the curmedgeonly nuns who believe misery is deserved. Inside the Vatican, the Pope gets along with Bish Peter Richardson, a priest in charge of coordinating the popes security and an unnamed nun Mirta Zecevic assigned to bring him his meals. The pope initially considers abdicating due to a failed assassination attempt against him but is convinced by the nun to stay. As the plot develops, one of the journalists at the press conference asks the Pope to explain the corruption inside the Vatican bank. The Pope demands to see the Vatican accounts. Bish had previously received a disk upon the previous popes death containing information about the fina

Source: Wikipedia