L'Agent américain

This slapstick picture contains amusing , funny scenes , fresh and diverting moments but also flaws and gaps . When a deported gangster dies in Italy, the U. S. Treasury Department is very interested in the one million dollars Madigan (Cesar Romero) owed the government, but managed to take to Italy with him. The U. S. Treasury Department is interested in Madigan's one million dollars owed, sending Agent Jason Phister (Dustin Hoffman) to Rome to collect the money, ensuring no one knows he's an agent. Jason arrives in Rome to recover funds swiped from missing gangster and he starts to nose out the million. His criteria for the job is that no one would ever guess he's an agent of the United States government. Jason is a bumbling and conceited agent of the United States Treasury Department who becomes involved in a lot of messes, confusion, chases and mayhem . Meanwhile, he is relentlessly pursued by an Italian commissioner (Gustavo Rojo) and meets a widow (Elsa Martinelli) who was previously related to Madigan.

Fun moments along with embarrassing in this first film from today's established actor Dustin Hoffman. This entertaining, slightly engaging movie is crammed of silly incidents, pursuits, shootouts, moving stunt-work , colorful outdoors and lots of humor. It is just a mildly amusing action comedy with a lot of thieves, mobsters, cops, and other ambitious people. A co-production between Italy and Spain, the interiors were actually shot in the Iberian Peninsula, and the exteriors in idyllic Rome. The movie gets sympathetic and hilarious moments here and there . A simple comedy with action scenes and chases, it was filmed in 1966, but it was not released until three years later, in 1969. The film has the main novelty of being Dustin Hoffman's film debut, with an apparently innocent character and a gentle personality, which reminds us, in some ways, of the role that would launch him to fame the following year in the film: The Graduate. This Hoffman debut is to his career what ¨The Last Chalice¨ was to Paul Newman's and ¨Studs and Kitty¨ was Sylvester Stallone. Here Dustin Hoffman steals the show by parodying the classic character of the stupid and botcher detective, including his ordinary faces , grimaces and gestures; and taking the style of Inspector Clouseau from the long-running Pink Panther series starring Peter Sellers . Being a Spanish/Italian coproduction appear Spain actors as Gustavo Rojo, Fernando Hilbeck, Gérad Tichy, José María Caffarel, Alfredo Mayo, Hector Quiroga and Italians: Riccardo Garrone, Franco Fabrizi, Umberto Raho, Daniele Vargas, Remo De Angelis, Luigi Bonos. Despite being third billed, Cesar Romero barely appears in the film.

Il testamento di Madigan (Italy) Agente quasi speciale Frank Putzu 1X7 (Italy) El millón de Madigan (Spain) Sid Pink's Madigan's Millions (United States) Madigan's Million. The motion picture written by José Luis Bayonas was lousily directed by Giorgio Gentilli. He was a director assistant such as: Zanna Bianca alla riscossa, The AntiChrist, A Lizard in a Woman's Skin, Our Man in Jamaica, Playing the field, The Tough and the Mighty, The Eroticist, The Brotherhood, Roma Bene. And occasionally filmmaker , shooting a few films such as: A Man Called Sledge , Bang Bang Kid and Un dollaro per 7 vigliacchi. Rating: 4/10. Recommended only to the terminally fool-hardy.

Dustin Hoffman's debut feature isn't as bad as it's reputed to be; a Spanish/Italian co-production filmed in Italy with the director using the pseudonym "Dan Ash"(!), the film is uneven but generally diverting and deals with a plethora of shady characters in search of a $1,000,000 hidden by gangster Cesar Romero (who, despite being third-billed - after Elsa Martinelli and Hoffman himself - expires before the credit sequence has even rolled!).

Hoffman's performance, obviously, is nowhere near as nuanced as in later films but manages to dodge embarrassment by playing what basically amounts to an amiable klutz - an accident-prone American treasury agent of Sicilian descent (named Puzzu, which nobody seems to be able to get right!) sent out by his firm to retrieve the money and told to remain "inconspicuous" but, instead, is forever getting into trouble - though he ultimately proves surprisingly resourceful by finding the loot, foiling the crooks and winning the girl (Martinelli as Romero's daughter, who's somewhat wasted here)!!

Still, the film's best moments are provided by suave gangster Riccardo Garrone: apart from his would-be hard-boiled persona and the hilarious use of dialect, he's flanked by a trio of nitwits who more often than not prove a hindrance in the fulfillment of his various schemes! Also, in view of the story being set in Rome, it's odd that the police officer investigating the case is a Spaniard (doubtless an exigency of the co-production deal)!

Along the years, I've missed out on Hoffman's other Italian comedy - ALFREDO, ALFREDO (1972) - a number of times (I guess, mainly, because Leonard Maltin only rates it *1/2 in his "Movies & Video Guide"...but, then, MADIGAN'S MILLION gets a BOMB!); with Pietro Germi directing and co-starring the luscious Stefania Sandrelli, the credentials of that film are certainly more respectable, and I really hope it turns up again on Italian TV soon...

This Spanish-Italian crime comedy is another Sidney Pink production (see my review of FICKLE FINGER OF FATE) and stars the young Dustin Hoffman as Jason Fister, a bumbling treasury agent who is assigned to a case in Rome because the people in his home office want to get rid of him. His task is to track down a million dollars stashed away by a former gangster turned insurance man, played by Cesar Romero whose role must take all of five minutes. Although this film was not released in the US until 1969, from reading producer Sid Pink's autobiography I got the impression that it was made right before THE GRADUATE. His performance here is very good--kind of like a more subdued Jerry Lewis (or is that a more subdued Sammy Petrillo?). Having his voice post-synchronized later hurts a bit, but Mr. Hoffman does his best, and I found the film to be a harmless yet enjoyable lowbrow comedy, not too different in feel from such Pink productions as FICKLE FINGER OF FATE or WITCH WITHOUT A BROOM. It's certainly more of a success than, say, Who is Harry Kellerman? or Dick Tracy (not to mention Ishtar!). Hoffman shows that even in this early point in his career he is entirely capable of carrying a film by himself. Mainstream audiences might be put off by the dubbing or the low-budget production quality, but if nothing else it proves that Mr. Hoffman can make a Franco and Ciccio movie as well as Franco and Ciccio could have done! The scene where Hoffman plays both Fister and his enforcer "Red" is priceless and could have come from a Harry Langdon short at Columbia or Educational--high praise coming from a Langdon fan such as myself! Now, if only Alfredo, Alfredo will come out on video in the USA...

In spite of the low rating of this film I got interested in it as I wanted to see an early Hoffman's performance and the story sounded interesting.So I watched the film and I think it isn't bad at all.Yes,it has its weak points but there is plenty of humor and fun in it.Some scenes can really make you laugh.The mixture of comedy and crime works in my view and the reason for that is mainly the wonderful Hoffman ,who makes a very good role.There is even a car chase in the movie which isn't bad for a film made in the 1960s.The plot is interesting,maybe it isn't so well written but it won't bother you and you'll probably find the movie nice.The supporting cast is also good:Elsa Martinelli,Gustavo Rojo,Ricardo Carrone,Fernando Hilbeck and the others do their job well.

There's a reason we never see this shown on ANY channel.... it's just really poor direction. Using the circus background music when people trip... a trick usually saved for movies aimed at children. And for the first half hour, hoffman yells his lines at the microphone. When madigan (cesar romero) is sent back to italy, the feds still want to find out what happened to the cash he stole in the united states. In an early film role, dustin hoffman is fister, the fed official, trying to track down madigan and the missing money. But he's a goof up, pink panther style. Or matt helm. But the awful script and direction just aren't up to even those standards. Where is the missing money? Some great shots of what the coliseum looked like in 1966. Directed by giorgio gentili and filmed in italy and spain. Although wikipedia says the director is standley prager. Odd. Wasn't prager the broadway show director?? Wikipedia also tells us this was filmed in 1966, but not released until 1968. That alone was a warning sign. One of three films directed by gentili. And now we know why! It's just very barely okay. Mostly interesting as how hoffman got his start.