A Dollar of Fear / Un dollaro di fifa (Giorgio Simonelli, 1960)

scherpschutter · August 3, 2011, 9:08pm

Before Clint & Lee there were …

Ugo & Walter

Read all about them in the:

https://www.spaghetti-western.net/index.php/Un_Dollaro_di_Fifa_Review

p.pereira · August 4, 2011, 9:56am

I’m glad you made a review. I’ve got that release too. Luckily some channels are still broadcasting this rarities.
Since I’m improving my understanding of italian, I guess I’ll be watching this one soon.

Pablo_Reyes · August 5, 2011, 2:16am

Very informative and well written review! Haven’t seen this aside from a few clips but will seek it out. The Tognazzi/Chiari team (and its variations - like Tognazzi/Vianello) was the predecessor of Franco and Ciccio, and many of the same talents like Giorgio Simonelli worked with them, but I must say these guys go down much more easily than that manic duo. Tognazzi, after all, evolved into one of the greatest film actors of his generation, and Chiari proved numerous times that he had as good acting chops as his American counterpart Dean Martin. I’ll watch anything with them in it just for them even though their joint vehicles were pretty ‘intermittent’ when it came to plotting and laughs. Smart move then using Gogol as a template and proof that even before Leone Italian Westerns cribbed their plots from unlikely classic predecessors. Footnote: Inspector General was adapted for another Italian comedy a couple years later, the (somewhat) more highbrow ANNI RUGGENTI with traveling salesman Nino Manfredi mistaken for an incognito Fascist inspector visiting a small burg at the dawn of WWII - very funny (Gastone Moschin as a short tempered Mussolini wannabe is priceless); though not Western, Linda Sini (of MASSACRE TIME) is in it.

scherpschutter · August 5, 2011, 6:17pm

Pablo Reyes:

Very informative and well written review! Haven’t seen this aside from a few clips but will seek it out. The Tognazzi/Chiari team (and its variations - like Tognazzi/Vianello) was the predecessor of Franco and Ciccio, and many of the same talents like Giorgio Simonelli worked with them, but I must say these guys go down much more easily than that manic duo. Tognazzi, after all, evolved into one of the greatest film actors of his generation, and Chiari proved numerous times that he had as good acting chops as his American counterpart Dean Martin. I’ll watch anything with them in it just for them even though their joint vehicles were pretty ‘intermittent’ when it came to plotting and laughs. Smart move then using Gogol as a template and proof that even before Leone Italian Westerns cribbed their plots from unlikely classic predecessors. Footnote: Inspector General was adapted for another Italian comedy a couple years later, the (somewhat) more highbrow ANNI RUGGENTI with traveling salesman Nino Manfredi mistaken for an incognito Fascist inspector visiting a small burg at the dawn of WWII - very funny (Gastone Moschin as a short tempered Mussolini wannabe is priceless); though not Western, Linda Sini (of MASSACRE TIME) is in it.

I go looking for that movie, I think. Sounds very interesting. They apparently stayed closer to the Gogol play, only changed the setting (from Tzarist Russia to Fascist Germany). This movie, Un Dollaro di Fifa, is of course a very, very free adaptation of the play. You’re right about Tognazzi, a talented comedian, he has some of the film’s best scenes. Franco and Ciccio had some talent too, but like you say, they were too manic.

Yodlaf_Peterson · August 5, 2011, 10:14pm

Un Dollaro di Fifa - What’s it about, backhanders for Seb Blatter?

Admin · March 27, 2024, 9:56am

This film’s entry in the database has been updated to the new layout.