Dois Mafiosos contra Goldfinger

I don't think a widescreen version was ever made and the standard definition version on Tubi TV is bad quality.

It's still not that bad, but not really that enjoyable either. Just watch it out of interest, if you're into old movies.

Franco and Ciccio remain much beloved in their native Italy, but elsewhere they didn't have much exposure. Apart from co-starring with Vincent Price in "Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs," and Buster Keaton in "War Italian Style," most American viewers would have probably caught the pair in this James Bond spoof, known by its TV title, "The Amazing Doctor G" (now perhaps better known as "Goldginger"). There really aren't so many gags based on "Goldfinger," but it's all in good fun, actually better than the other two examples. Franco's mugging (ala Jerry Lewis) isn't as annoying as the voice he was dubbed with, while Ciccio, not really a straight man, has less identity than Larry Fine. As Goldginger, Fernando Rey, veteran of numerous international films ("Voyage of the Damned," "The French Connection"), will be remembered by genre buffs for 1962's "Face of Terror" and 1966's "Attack of the Robots." "The Amazing Doctor G" made a surprising four appearances on Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater, including two in 1970, while virtually all other Eurospy entries came and went with but a single broadcast.

In 1965 when this movie was made, the 'Spy Genre' was definitely in: Power-hungry schemers trying to rule the world, fast cars, beautiful babes, exotic locations, and fancy gadgets. This movie is no exception, and has everything. The story goes from Italy to Spain to London as it follows two buffoons who accidentally stumble on a plot to take over the world. Our two heroes are in terrible danger and stumble wherever they go, and along the way they are noticed by the British Secret Service. The Service decides to hire them and put them to work as real spies! The references to 'Goldfinger' are frequent and obvious, but not overdone (at least to this viewer). Yes, it is a silly movie but still enjoyable.

The two buffoons in this movie were actually famous in Italy in the 1960s for making many such comedies. They played spies and policemen, and were constantly getting into grave trouble. They were both very silly, so parallels with 'Laurel and Hardy' or 'Martin and Lewis' were not accurate; neither of them played the role of 'straight man'.

Agent 007 (George Hilton) is on a mission to capture the villain Goldfinger (Fernando Rey), but 007 is shot just a few minutes after the beginning. Now that the best agent can't continue the job, the two worst agents (Franco and Ciccio, of course) have to do the job, unwillingly.

This is a very early spoof on the Bond series, almost exclusively referring to "Goldfinger", by the two Sicilian comedians Franco and Ciccio. It has its funny moments, for example when the two don't know about the secret functions of 007's car and get into trouble with the traffic police, or when they have to use Goldfinger's brain control to stop a politician from declaring war at the United Nations conference. Yet most of the time it's rather silly, even if I consider that quite a bit might get lost in translation.

Arguably the best gag of "Goldginger" comes at the very start, when Franco and Ciccio offer their version of the disguise that Sean Connery used to swim undetected in the pre-title sequence of "Goldfinger". And the movie as a whole might have been better if it had stuck more closely to its "model": there is an Oddjob-like figure, a small army of voluptuous girls in tight jumpsuits, and a sort of spoof on the classic "laser" scene, but "Goldginger" actually tries to take off on its own path, and its "plot" is utterly stupid even by a comedy's standards (instead of trying to help the innocent "robotized" victims, they kill them!). Franco's mugging is excessive and will probably tire all but his most devoted fans. On the bright side, Fernando Rey lends a certain measure of class to the lowbrow proceedings, and Gloria Paul may just be the most beautiful woman of the 1960s! Rosalba Neri is also in the film, but to be honest I didn't recognize her. *1/2 out of 4.