Slalom (1965)

Director:

Luciano Salce

Writers:

Franco Castellano (screenplay), Franco Castellano (story),

Stars:

Vittorio Gassman, Adolfo Celi, Daniela Bianchi

Cast

Credited cast:
Vittorio Gassman	...	Lucio Ridolfi
Adolfo Celi	...	Riccardo
Daniela Bianchi	...	Nadia
Beba Loncar	...	Helen
Lobna Abdel Aziz	...	Fahra (as Loubna D. Aziz)
Emma Danieli	...	Hilde, Lucio's wife
Corrado Olmi	...	Italian Embassy Official
Bob Oliver	...	George
Nagwa Fouad	...	Nabila
Isabella Biagini	...	Simonetta, Riccardo
Piero Vida	...	The Murderer
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Fortunato Arena	...	Thug with Knife
Rafael Pisareff

Storyline

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Genres:

Comedy

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Details

Country:

Italy France Egypt

Language:

Italian

Release Date:

24 September 1965 (Italy)

Also Known As:

Snow Job

Company Credits

Production Co:

Cocinor, Copro Film, Fair Film

Technical Specs

Runtime:

108 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

User Reviews

Twisty curio

Vittorio Gassman and Adolfo Celi play two Italian buddies who go on a trip to a ski resort along with their wives. They devise a plan to get rid of them for a few days and flirt with the other ladies there, but Gassman gets in over his head when he meets an enigmatic blonde woman (the gorgeous Beba Loncar) who may actually be an assassin, and gets involved in a bizarre espionage adventure that takes him from Italy to Egypt, under a different identity. For James Bond fans, this obscure film has definite curiosity value for the presence of Adolfo Celi (Largo in "Thunderball") and Daniela Bianchi (Tatiana in "From Russia With Love"). Let me clear this up: Celi has a totally disposable part that could be played by anyone. But Bianchi, although it takes a while for her to appear, has an important role as an agent with shifty loyalties (and she even gets to fire a machine gun - that's almost worth the price of admission right there!). I personally found her better - and more beautiful - here than she was in "From Russia With Love". The film begins as a rather unfunny slapstick comedy (Gassman falls down on the snow a lot - ha ha ha), but after about 30 minutes the plot actually gets intriguing and almost dreamily weird. In the second half, it becomes a slightly more serious spy comedy, with lots of twists and turns. Overall it's worth a look; the print I saw had pretty atrocious picture quality, but you get used to it after a while. I doubt we'll ever see a remastered version of this one. ** out of 4.