Catch As Catch Can (1967) User Reviews

I would catch it if I could.

[petebuttwagon · 30 October 2000]

When I was 16, in 1976, I was meant to be doing homework and subconsciously searching for role models other than Ernest Borgnine when I came accross this movie on TV. It instantly changed my perception on several fronts. It was everything I was looking for; absurdity, animal liberation, sexual references and more.

My predicament is this. I have not seen the movie again and rely on my old brain to recollect that magnificent hour and a half. [true] Perhaps others can relate to this. There is a part of me that wants to see the movie again and another part that wants to hold onto the glorious image of 1976. In any case it is unobtainable in this country. I appreciate the space for expressing my feelings, seriously.

pete buttwagon

What a waste of talent!

[tecnodata · 3/10 · 7 January 2014]

I didn't see this movie when it came out in 1968. And for good reasons, I guess, as it must have had a very short life in theaters. I saw it today and I was intrigued by the opportunity of watching what I was expecting to be a long lost gem. What a disappointment. I couldn't bear myself to endure watching it to the end. Put simply, it's one of the worst films ever made for which no significant use can be found apart from titillating the sexual interest of American teenagers (who nowadays have better options, anyway). The only reason it was made was probably the exploit the physical gimmicks of the main actor, Vittorio Gassman, who at the time was at the peak of his career as a TV personality.

Funniest movie I've ever seen. Was literally peeing my pants and screaming out loud while watching it.

[john-5878 · 10/10 · 10 July 2021]

Funniest movie I've ever seen. Was literally peeing my pants and screaming out loud while watching it. In 1978, Gary Warne and the San Francisco Suicide Club screened this movie on a double bill with The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T. at the Roxie Cinema on 16th St. In San Francisco. The show was billed "A Tribute to Paranoia" The theater was packed out standing room only.

The 5000 Fingers is a great movie, but Catch as Catch Can was almost impossibly hilarious. It seemed like every animal in the entire world was trying to kill or at least maim the lead character played by Vittorio Gassman.

Admittedly it's been over 40 years since I saw it, but I recall the entire theater was in stitches all through the movie so I guess it'll be as funny the next time I (hopefully) see it..

memorably funny!

[dbeck32 · 21 October 2011]

I also saw this Movie one late night in the early seventies and never forgot it. I could never find any more information about this Movie until now. This movie had some of the funniest scenes I have ever seen. I can remember roaring in laughter as the main character ran through a city with an umbrella while birds up above relieved themselves only on him (on his umbrella)while onlookers watched in disbelief. There were many scenes like this such as when he tried spraying bug spray in his car to kill the fly that wouldn't leave him alone, only to be stopped by a Police Officer because he caused a major traffic jam. I would love to see this movie again.

a weird memory...

[amatley · 8 March 2004]

I, too, saw this film on late night television in the early 1970s and my early teens. My little sister and I watched it and were most amused by the incessant fly that perpetually interfered with the hero's activities. I have tried to find reference to it, or to find it in video, just to see what it was really all about, but have had no luck. Funny to finally discover some proof it exists on this web site! Being female, we missed most of the preadolscent thrill of all of the cleavage, but did enjoy the pure humor of it. We were old enough anyway to know it was dubbed, but now that I know it was an Italian film from the 60s it makes more sense to me. You have to wonder what happens to all of these films -- first of all, how did it end up on late night west coast TV in the first place. And where did it go? The 70s were an era when late night tv was an adventure.

Remembering This Film From WTVC's "Sunday Cinema"

[bimp-3 · 1 February 2000]

In the early 70's, when I was in my early teens, television was an experimental place, especially on Sundays. All sorts of interesting shows came over the color television in my family's living room, and the black-and-white one in my bed- room. WTVC's "Sunday Cinema" showed some of the highest mo- ments at the apex of TV weirdness: Sunday afternoon. One day I tuned in, and a film called "Catch As Catch Can" was on. It was an Italian film, dubbed in English. My grandmother and I were in the living room watching, and I noticed it was some- thing I'd never seen before: a sex comedy! No nudity, mind you (except for a centerfold one of the characters was ogling), but plenty of scantily-clad, well-endowed maidens. And plenty of opportunities taken by the director to make sure the women were photographed from some point above their heads, putting their ample cleavage on display. Up to this point, I'd only seen the likes in Life magazine spreads on Raquel Welch, and the Mark Eden Bust Enhancer ads in Redbook. Grandmother was under- standably concerned about the quality of viewing, so she changed the channel to something else after we viewed a swim- ming pool scene in which a woman almost drowns and is resus- citated by the hero, poised above her ample bosom. I went to my room, presumably to read. I turned the movie back on in there. There were other scenes I've forgotten, but one bit of titillation sticks in my mind: the hero and some busty woman rolling round and round in a giant soup can that's floating down some river. I had a breast fixation for years after seeing the film. I was in absolute heaven. Story? Why worry about that? I am decidedly more sexually mature--and definitely more politically correct--now that I am 42, but I am still very glad WTVC, for whatever reason, put that film on that day.