Clan dei due borsalini, I (1971)

Director:

Giuseppe Orlandini

Writers:

Roberto Gianviti (writer)
Giuseppe Orlandini (writer)

Plot:

Cast

Franco Franchi	...	Franco Franchetti, il 'Professore'
Ciccio Ingrassia	...	Prof. Francesco Ingrassini
Isabella Biagini	...	Il fantasma
Gabriella Giorgelli	...	Bruna la Svelta
Adriana Giuffrè
Lino Banfi	...	Ferdi (as Pasquale Zagaria)
Evi Farinelli
Renato Malavasi	...	Professore anziano
Franca Haas	...	Cameriera
Ignazio Leone
Flora Carosello
Enzo Andronico	...	Complice (as Vincenzo Andronico)
Umberto D'Orsi
Lorenzo Piani
Luca Sportelli	...	Il bidello

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Antheo Cinematografica

Lets make it up as we go along

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Franco is going back to school and Ciccio is his puzzled Proffesiore. Franchi claims to work at night to support his family. In a 'clever' bit of role reversal his own son keeps putting him down and forcing him to study harder. This is the usual Franco/Ciccio routine: they start of with a premise and when they have exhausted all possible jokes, they move on to something else. So first we get several scenes developing a red haired schoolboy called Pierino Pirati who also narrates (but not the whole way through). Then there is another subplot about pretty math teacher senora Rossi who has an extremely jealous boyfriend. Both of these plots strand after a while and are left behind to rot.

The teachers are willing to give Franchetti passable grades to get rid of him, but Professore Ingrassini will not stand for this and decides to tutor him at home. Did he forget about that night job? Turns out Franco is a bit of a Fagin: teaching a gang of misfits how to pickpocket. When they 'graduate' they are planning to rob a jewelery store behind the school. Does this mean there is some logic to the script after all? Not for long. In between we get some useless filler uppers with a Minister of Education visiting the school while the gang get lesions in safe cracking and purse snatching (with motor bikes). Let's call them the Zoom Out gang since each time they do something remotely funny the camera people start zooming in and out like crazy.

It's not easy to sit out a whole movie with the two ugliest comedians ever born: Franco pulls so many faces he makes Jim Carrey look like Buster Keaton and Ciccio is best described as an uglier version of Ron Perlman who never works out. Anyway on to the next sketch: Franchetti uses his sister in law Beunetta to distract 'The Beast' but his pesky son is planning to tell on him. Suddenly the writers decided to have had enough of logic for a while, so we get a lapse into la la land involving a haunted house where a sexy red haired ghost scares them into mugging some more (with the face, not the fingers). I believe this had something to do with Franco's alibi while the Zoom Out gang, now led by Lino Banfi with a comb over bungle the heist on their own. Franco escapes on a motorcycle and leaves Ciccio behind, but after a quick cutaway they are back together for the final chase featuring some of the most pathetic stunts ever filmed.

1 out of 10