Un genio, due compari, un pollo (1975)

Director:

Damiano Damiani

Writers:

Damiano Damiani (screenplay)
Ernesto Gastaldi (screenplay)

Release Date:

16 December 1975 (West Germany)

Genre:

Comedy | Western

Plot:

Three rogues set out to rob $300,000 from an Indian-hating cavalry major.

Plot Keywords:

Major | Sequel | Spaghetti Western | Cult Western | Priest

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Terence Hill	...	Joe Thanks / Nobody
Miou-Miou	...	Lucy (as Miou Miou)
Robert Charlebois	...	Bill Locomotiva / Steamengine Bill
Patrick McGoohan	...	Major Cabot
Raimund Harmstorf	...	Sergeant Milton
Piero Vida	...	Jacky Roll
Rik Battaglia	...	Captain
Mario Valgoi	...	Thomas Trader
Mario Brega	...	Coach driver
Friedrich von Ledebur	...	Don Felipe, the priest (as Frederick von Ledebur)
Jean Martin	...	Colonel Pembroke
Klaus Kinski	...	Doc Foster
Clara Colosimo	...	La ruffiana
Fernando Cerulli	...	Her husband (as Ferdinando Cerulli)
Benito Stefanelli	...	Mortimer

Also Known As:

A Genius, Two Friends, and an Idiot (USA)
A Genius, Two Partners and a Dupe
Nobody ist der Größte (West Germany)
Nobody's the Greatest (video title)
The Genius
Trinity Is Back Again (USA)
Un génie, deux associés, une cloche (France)

Runtime:

UK:117 min | Spain:114 min | Italy:126 min

Country:

Italy | France | West Germany

Language:

Italian

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Singapore:PG | Finland:K-16 | Netherlands:12 | Sweden:15 | UK:PG | West Germany:12 | Australia:R

Filming Locations:

Monument Valley, Utah, USA

Company:

AMLF

Trivia:

German Import DVD has a Super-8mm Version (German language only), as a special feature on the disc.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Major Cabot brings Bill and Lucy to the cell, they go through a room with flags which are supposed to be the state flags of the United States. If you watch closely you can see the flags of the European Union and of East Germany.

Quotes:

Doc Foster: [to Joe] In a few moments you'll be the deadest man that ever lived!

A disappointing curiosity that has its moments.

Bit of a disappointment this one, although it was always bound to be too good to be true.

Just think of it! A spaghetti western directed by the great Damiano Damini (A Bullet for the General) and the greater Sergio Leoni, starring legendary actors Patrick McGoohan and Klaus Kinski, with music by Ennio Morriconne. How could it go wrong?

Well let's start...

The opening sequence at least (directed by Leone) is brilliant and promises a terrific film. A promise that is not kept. The sequence has little or no bearing on the rest of the film, an action comedy about the conning of a racist cavalry Major (McGoohan) out of three hundred thousand dollars and the love triangle between the three con-artists, led by Terence Hill.

There seems to be something about most Italian comedy that simply doesn't work when playing to a British or American audience and here it is the same. Most of the film is buffoonery that falls flat, made increasingly worse by the decision to give most of the co-stars silly voices in the dubbing room. Klaus Kinski comes off the worst in his tiny cameo, looking great, out-acting everyone on the screen, but sounding like an ancient hillbilly. Miou-Miou's squeaky toddler voice is unbearable.

McGoohan too sounds bizarre, somewhere between an English toff and WC Fields (all the stranger still, because the voice is actually his).

The music tends towards the comical of course, and as such is not in Morricone's best work.

However, there are some diamonds among the rough. McGoohan's performance is great, in spite of the voice.Terence Hill makes a fairly engaging lead, whose description of a duel is a classic moment for spaghetti westerns. The climax too, an energetic chase, accompanied to Morriconne's reworking of Beethoven's Fur Elise, ending with a tremendous explosion that leaves McGoohan covered in white dust atop his horse like an imposing alabaster statue (worth the admission price alone) is evidence that there is some real talent at work here.

In a perfect world, A Genius would be the very best of the spaghetti westerns. As it stands, it is a failure that I'm very pleased to have seen.