Carambola (Ferdinando Baldi, 1974)

ENNIOO · January 11, 2017, 11:52pm

Just viewed this one again. Not the greatest of story to this, and a little bit to long in the running time. The same gags are you used far to often, like the milk drinking scenes for example. The endless fight scenes, with the silly song that just goes on and on. But the thing that I cannot get out of my head this was directed by Baldi, he could have possibly had a few to many beers

Dean · October 5, 2019, 12:33pm

Pretty enjoyable for a blatant rip-off. That goofy song is catchy despite it being overplayed, and there is indeed an abundance of fistfights.

Could be the greatest film I’ve ever seen.

The_Man_With_a_Name · October 5, 2019, 12:51pm

Greater than Prega il Morto e Ammazza il Vivo, Dean?

Dean · October 5, 2019, 7:14pm

I’m going to ask Oxford to change the definition of ‘Perfection’ to that very film.

Mickey13 · November 19, 2022, 9:04am

Copied from the Spagvemberfest 2022 thread:

Spagvemberfest 2022 - the legend continues

I do not know what I was expecting prior to watching this, I merely viewed this just to strike it out of my watchlist and forget about the whole thing, the sooner the better. The film’s biggest issue consists in that the work is simply nowhere nearly as funny as intended and there is just not enough chemistry between Paul L. Smith and Antonio Cantafora to make this work anyhow. You can tell certain scenes are intended for laughs and the gags are supposed to provoke wild laughter, to no avail though. Oddly enough, the movie pales in comparison even with mid-tier spaghetti comedies in that it fails miserably at being funny.

Generally speaking, the stolid execution and the bovine narrative thwart much of those aspirations and render the effort completely fruitless, not to mention the jokes are not that good to begin with. I do not understand how Smith’s crushing glasses filled with milk is supposed to be funny, but it happens to be one of the primary attractions of this humorless Trinity rip-off. With its repetitious musical score, the film seems occupied with plumbing the depths of lazy emulation, copycatting as much as conceivably possible without a shred of originality to animate the sorry endeavor. It is over before it even begins, the fact that it goes on for as long as it does is offensive in and of itself. Ridiculously fucking boring.

Carlos · June 28, 2023, 5:24pm

Carambola has been updated to the new layout (3.0). Let us know if you can add anything: pictures, posters, trivia, facts, figures, links, etc…

ozerovocka · April 23, 2025, 7:45am

Turkish newspaper advertisement

Admin · April 30, 2025, 6:37pm

Interestingly, the DVD states on the back that it has German subtitles available for parts that were previously cut from the German release (very nice of them). But, it once again seems to be the wrong aspect ratio Carambola/DVD - The Spaghetti Western Database

The_Man_With_a_Name · May 10, 2026, 8:25pm

I watched this one again last night and it is even more entertaining than I remembered. The Italian DVD is very good quality, although it has been cropped to fill out the TV screen. I am happy that it finally got a DVD release in the English language though! Now we just need an English-friendly release of the sequel.