O Homem do Sputnik

The Sputmik is missing and a hillbilly thinks that it had just fell in his backyard. He becomes famous and he and his wife are introduced to the 'High Society' while the CIA, the KGB and the French wants to lay their hands in the Sputnik, by all means necessary. That's the plot. What happens in the movie in fact is a series of jokes about the Brazilian High Society and how the world perceives the Brazil. It's plenty of stereotypes, true, but this is also part of the fun (Jô Soares as a CIA agent who can't stop chewing chewing gum and Norma Bengel as B.B., sexy French agent, are memorable). Lots of funny moments all along the way including its purposely 'open end'.

During a stormy night in the countryside, Cleci (Zezé Macedo) wakes her redneck husband Anastácio Fortuna (Oscarito) up to close the window of their room. He sees that something has fallen on their chicken house and killed two chickens, and he brings the circular object home. On the next morning, Cleci reads on the news that a Sputnik is missing and might have fallen on Earth. Based on the picture of the satellite, they conclude that the object is the sputnik. Anastácio sneaks out of the house with the object and goes to the bank Caixa Econômica Federal to pledge the object and raise some money to repair the chicken house. However, the attendant Dorinha (Neide Aparecida) calls her boy-friend Nelson (Cyl Farney) that works in the newspaper Tribuna da Cidade under the pseudonym Jacinto Boucha, covering the social column, and he sees the chance of a scoop that could raise his career. However, the snoopy and unethical reporter Alberto (Alberto Perez) hears the conversation in an phone extension and releases the news on the front page. Anastácio becomes famous and has an immediate social ascension to the high society, moving to the fancy Copacabana Palace Hotel, while the Russian, North American and French governments send their agents to Brazil to get the sputnik at any cost.

This is the fourth time that I have watched "O Homem do Sputnik", one of the funniest comedies of Brazilian cinema ever. In 1959, with the Cold War, sputnik and Brigitte Bardot, this movie is a hilarious collection of stereotypes. The sexy and witty Norma Bengell performing BeBe is na amazingly perfect parody of the French actress; Hamilton Ferreira in the role of a Russian agent and the presently famous Jô Soares (Joe Soares in 1959) performing an American agent chewing gums and swinging while walking are comical. The lines of Oscarito and Zezé Macedo are amusing, and Cyl Farney and Neide Aparecida play the usual good guy and his girl. My vote is ten.

Title (Brazil): "O Homem do Sputnik" ("The Man of the Sputnik")