As usual with Franco/Ciccio flicks, the opening credits are more enjoyable then the rest of the picture. Italy's best loved comedy duo play rival priests in the neighboring towns of Roccapizzone and San Antonio. Did Franco crash his bike through Ciccio's new stained glass window on purpose or was he just in town for their mutual confession? Their main beef with each other concerns their opposing football teams and this feud takes up a great deal of the picture. This one does have much better cinematography then most of their collaborations. Dig those frog eye perspective shots. If only they could ease up on the zoom lens already!
There is quite a lot of social commentary concerning equal rights for factory workers and (to a much lesser extend) women. This is surprising for a F&C feature until you realize that the two comics have absolutely nothing to do with this part of the story. We sometimes loose them for ten minutes straight to focus on the big strike, Fabio the policeman (who looks exactly like Captain Kirk in disguise on that Nazi planet) and young Anna (Edwige Fenech in a rare fully clothed appearance). She in turn has a 'hillarious' fascist granddad who hates Bolsjewiks. Third billed Edwige is wasted as window dressing, playing the thankless part of the love interest to a bland hero who has nothing heroic to do. The two Don's only intrude into this half of the story once before the two plot strands separate ne'er to cross paths again.
Finally the all important football match arrives to take over one third of the picture (or at least it seemed that way to me). How many times can we take the sight of Franco's assistant (Lino Banfi) falling of the bench? The two priests end up in opposite goals for a reasonably funny Good, Bad and Ugly spoof. Having played their parts, they went of to shoot parts of the other 15 films they had coming out that year and are completely absent for the finale in the factory. Banfi has to carry this part of the film but the writers still felt the need to bring in some hippies from the Rhythm of Life Tabernakel for good measure (Aquarius!) We have just enough time left for a reprise of the stained glass bit and after the script ran out, more frantic zooming.
3 out of 10
There is quite a lot of social commentary concerning equal rights for factory workers and (to a much lesser extend) women. This is surprising for a F&C feature until you realize that the two comics have absolutely nothing to do with this part of the story. We sometimes loose them for ten minutes straight to focus on the big strike, Fabio the policeman (who looks exactly like Captain Kirk in disguise on that Nazi planet) and young Anna (Edwige Fenech in a rare fully clothed appearance). She in turn has a 'hillarious' fascist granddad who hates Bolsjewiks. Third billed Edwige is wasted as window dressing, playing the thankless part of the love interest to a bland hero who has nothing heroic to do. The two Don's only intrude into this half of the story once before the two plot strands separate ne'er to cross paths again.
Finally the all important football match arrives to take over one third of the picture (or at least it seemed that way to me). How many times can we take the sight of Franco's assistant (Lino Banfi) falling of the bench? The two priests end up in opposite goals for a reasonably funny Good, Bad and Ugly spoof. Having played their parts, they went of to shoot parts of the other 15 films they had coming out that year and are completely absent for the finale in the factory. Banfi has to carry this part of the film but the writers still felt the need to bring in some hippies from the Rhythm of Life Tabernakel for good measure (Aquarius!) We have just enough time left for a reprise of the stained glass bit and after the script ran out, more frantic zooming.
3 out of 10
