Un dollaro per 7 vigliacchi (1968)

User Rating:

4.2/10   

Director:

Giorgio Gentili

Writers:

José Luis Bayonas (screenplay)
José Luis Bayonas (story)

Release Date:

30 May 1968 (Italy)

Genre:

Comedy | Crime

Plot:

When a deported gangster dies in Italy, the U.S. treasury dept. is very interested in the $1,000,000.00 Madigan owed the government...

Cast

Elsa Martinelli	...	Vic Shaw
Cesar Romero	...	Mike Madigan
Dustin Hoffman	...	Jason Fister
Gustavo Rojo	...	Lt. Arco
Fernando Hilbeck	...	Burke
Riccardo Garrone	...	Matteo Cirini
Franco Fabrizi	...	Caronda
Gérard Tichy	...	Deilvie
Jan de Milte
Umberto Raho	...	Photographer
Daniele Vargas
José María Caffarel
Rina Mascetti
Ennio Antonelli
Pino Polidori

Also Known As:

Agente quasi speciale Frank Putzu 1X7 (Italy) (reissue title)
El millón de Madigan (Spain)
Il testamento di Madigan (Italy) (working title)
Madigan's Million (UK)
Madigan's Millions (USA)

Runtime:

86 min | Spain:93 min

Country:

Italy | Spain | USA

Language:

Italian | English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:L | Finland:K-12 | Spain:T | USA:G

Filming Locations:

Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company:

Hercules Cinematografica

Trivia:

Cesar Romero replaced George Raft, who had become ill, in the title role of Mike Madigan. None of Raft's scenes remain in the film.

Goofs:

Continuity: Phister gains glasses while being dragged up the stairs to Madigan's office.

MADIGAN'S MILLION (Giorgio Gentili, 1968) **

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...