Four Stiffs and a Trombone
1991 film by Roger Cantin
Four Stiffs and a Trombone (French: L'assassin jouait du trombone) is a Canadian crime comedy film, directed by Roger Cantin and released in 1991. The film stars Germain Houde as Augustin Marleau, a nighttime security guard at a film studio who entertains fantasies of being a film noir detective, and becomes involved in a murder investigation when a killer begins murdering employees of the studio.
The cast also includes Marc Labrèche, Raymond Bouchard, Normand Lévesque, Gildor Roy, France Castel, Jean-Pierre Bergeron and Paule Baillargeon.
A sequel film, The Revenge of the Woman in Black (La vengeance de la femme en noir), was released in 1997.
“Four Stiffs and a Trombone” enters the record as 1991 film by Roger Cantin. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Four, Stiffs and Trombone can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Four Stiffs and a Trombone” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Four, Stiffs and Trombone provides the most credible route into that argument.
Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q16651380. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1991 and 1997.
Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
- Identifying works and editions
- Tracing reception history
- Finding collection records
The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Four Stiffs and a Trombone”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Four Stiffs and a Trombone primary sources, Four Stiffs and a Trombone archive and Four research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Four Stiffs and a Trombone”?
- Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
- How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Four Stiffs and a Trombone” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.