[1] Starring Lino Ventura, Bernard Blier and Mireille Darc, with dialogue by Michel Audiard, it is an espionage caper built around the efforts of agents from various countries to extract valuable weaponry patents from the young and attractive widow of an international arms dealer.

To avoid repercussions and to exploit this opportunity, they smuggle his corpse back to his castle in Bavaria in the care of top agent Francis, posing as the dead man's cousin Ludo.

After trying unsuccessfully to eliminate each other by such devices as a bomb in the bathroom cistern and a scorpion in the bed, the four agents agree an uneasy truce and instead concentrate on charming the widow.

Following a climactic battle in which the hordes of Chinese using martial arts are eliminated, Francis is admitted to the widow's bed and in the morning escapes with her to Lisbon, where the patents are in a bank vault.

But the three foiled spies and O'Brien have not given up, leading to further battles which demolish part of the Portuguese hotel and result in bodies dropping regularly from the night express to Paris.