Thieves and Robbers

In absence of Terence Hill, they replace for Tomas Milian as Bud Spencer comic pair, keeping the formulaic successful concept, as shooting at Miami, as the previous ones and bringing some American famous actor as Marc Lawrence, Spencer is Captain Parker a special disguise cop, who was in charge to arrest a Gigolo called Tony Roma, a sort of kitsch Latin lover, who spent your time in search of old women seducing her to take their jewels, Parker gets arreste Tony and delivery him for a cop on the car park, somehow he escapes, actually Tony was involved with Senator's wife and was a witness of a murder committed by a powerful mobster (Marc Lawrence) then henceforth he beseechs for Park's protection, Milian was a prolific actor and was faultless playing Tony, wearing those old-fashioned colorful clothes, corny hairstyle, however he is harmless, together with ill tempered Spencer the troubles is a matter of time, funny picture almost in the same level Hill-Spencer!! Resume: First watch: 1989 / How many: 3 / Source: TV-DVD / Rating: 6.5.

Police lieutenant Bud Spencer has his holiday cut short. Senator Dan Fitzgerald wants Tomas Milian arrested for making love to Fitzgerald's wife and stealing her jewelry, as he has done with many another woman. Spencer arrests him three times -- Milian keeps escaping after Spencer hands hm over to other cops -- Millian witnesses mafioso Marc Lawrence carrying out a hit job. I've seen Spencer (real name: Carlo Pedersoli) in plenty of spaghetti westerns. Here he's very funny as the solid and seemingly stolid cop who's always one step ahead of the frenetic Milian. Director Bruno Corbucci may not be as well known as his brother Sergio, but he has directed a very funny movie here. A writer and director, he died in 1996 at the age of 64.

Bud Spencer plays a cop (named, in an obvious attempt to pass him off as an American, Alan Parker (!)) who has to temporarily cancel his family vacation to re-capture a gigolo (named Tony Roma (!)) who seduces older women and then steals their jewelry. But when that man becomes a witness to a Mafia killing, he and Bud team up to put the REAL bad guys behind bars. After seeing him in about 8-10 films, I've come to the conclusion that Bud Spencer has an undeniable comic talent. Unfortunately, in "Cane e Gatto" there is no one else to support him or play off against him: Tomas Milian is an unfunny caricature of a self-assured gigolo who wears kitschy suits, drives a pink car and is dubbed with an overdone Italian accent, and Marc Lawrence is a less unfunny, but still unfunny, caricature of a Mafia don. This is slapdash (notice the rapid night-to-day change between the hotel scene and the chase that follows immediately afterwards), simple-minded film-making. ** out of 4, and that's very generous.

THIEVES AND ROBBERS is another knockabout comedy vehicle for the great Bud Spencer, this time paired up with Tomas Milian rather than his usual sparring partner Terence Hill. Milian was in a series of electrifying police films in the 1970s, but he plays an annoyingly over-the-top con man here, which lessens the enjoyability somewhat. Still, Spencer is a droll delight and the usual scenes of him beating up punks are great fun. The film is light, breezy and sunny, with a simple versus-the-mafia plot and plenty of nonsense at all times.

Thieves and Robbers