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Reviews
Our Man Flint (1966)
Preposterous
A dull parody of the spy-movie, made at the time when James Bond had the fascinating persona of Sean Connery. The film is flat, one-dimensional. I remember watching it at the time, as a boy; it was boring. The only mild item of interest were the parodies of the gimmicks that secret agents used in such movies. I remember a funny telephone ringer that did a musical tune, instead of the metallic "breeeeng!" we were used to at the time. With present-day cellphones playing symphonies and ouvertures, even that mild humour has been lost.
L'armata Brancaleone (1966)
Masterpiece of linguistic humour
I take the risk of annoying most people but it must be said: in order to get the full flavour of the fun in this movie you should have a really good knowledge of the Italian language, and view the film in original. It is hard even for an Italian to understand some of the dialogues, while they rapidly switch from Gassman's impeccable proto-Italian with strong Latin influences (spoken in such a serious manner as to result irresistibly comic), to Abacuc's Jewish version thereof, to the other characters' strong rural poor-man's accent.
In this movie, and in the delectable sequel "Brancaleone alle Crociate", Gassman is at the top of his skill as an actor. This is somehow like acting the "Fifteen Minutes Hamlet" without even remotely smiling, but giving a serious, professional performance. Only someone who is truly great can do the buffoon like this without appearing histrionic, or ridiculous.