The Pope Must Die

A priest is chosen as the new pope by accident, after a Vatican secretary mistakes his name for that of the cardinal favoured by the mob. Giuseppe Albinizi is not suited to the role in any conventional sense: he plays rock and roll on the guitar, loves old cars, and once worked as a mechanic before entering a monastery over a failed romance with an American tourist. Elevated to the highest office in the Catholic Church, he stumbles onto corruption inside the Vatican and a network of organised crime involving a cardinal and a monsignor, and the mob concludes that this pope has to go. He must also reckon with the reappearance of the woman he once loved.

Peter Richardson directed and co-wrote the screenplay with Pete Richens, with Stephen Woolley producing. Robbie Coltrane takes the title role, and the cast includes Beverly D'Angelo, Herbert Lom, Paul Bartel, Richardson himself and Adrian Edmondson among 56 credited performers. Richardson had directed earlier films before this one and continued to work afterwards.

The British production had a budget of 4 million US dollars. On IMDb it holds a rating of 5.1 out of 10 from around 1,800 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 5 out of 10 from a much smaller number of votes. A critics' rating of 3.4 out of 10 from eight reviews places the reviews well below the audience scores.