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Alfredo Mayo - 1965 Due mafiosi contro Goldginger (Two mafiosi vs Golginger) |
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Italian posters 1965 |
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Original
titles: Due mafiosi contro Golginger
Other titles: Zwei trottel gegen Goldfinger - The amazing Doctor G - The two crazy secret agents Misión Goldginger - Dos mafiosos contra Goldginger -Dos mafiosos contra Goldezenger Operación relámpago (Argentina) |
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by Giorgio Simonelli |
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Story guión : Alessandro
Continenza, Amedeo Sollazzo,
Dino Verde |
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Casting |
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| Franco
Franchi (Franco Pecora), Ciccio Ingrassia (Ciccio Pecora),
Gloria
Paul (Marlène), Goldginger (Fernando Rey), Andrea Bosic
(Colonel Herrman), George Hilton (Agent 007), Dakar (Molok),
Giampiero Littera (Dupont), Barbara
Nelli (Madame Dupont), Elisa Montes (Mary), Rosalba Neri
(Colonel's secretary), Marui Pennisi (Instructor in the spy training
camp), Adolfo Belleti (hotel doorman),
Lino Banfi
(An agent), Nino Terzo (A guard), Ario Pennisi, Alfredo Adami, Enzo
Andronico, Mario Boninos, Mario Frera, John Karby, John Karlsen, the
Gingers Girls, Nino Milano, Guglielmo Spoletini, Luis
Peña and Alfredo
Mayo |
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German and Italian posters - Years 60 |
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I.- The story |
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Two
Sicilian press photographers who are too brothers, Franco and Ciccio
Pecora (Franco Franchi and Ciccio
Ingrassia) have entered in secret in a rich villa where, during a secret groundwork NATO meeting they have taken
photographs of personalities, between them an admiral ... Some time
later, they are walking along a motorway when arrives a convertible car
which is driven by a Blackman with a tailcoat and a bowler. His name is
Molok
(Dakar) and he is the servant of a powerful finance manager, M.
Goldginger (Fernando Rey). It is for Franco and Ciccio the beginning of
very serious problems! They witness in live the death of the Agent 007
(George Hilton). So the Pecoras are enlisted by the Colonel Herrmann
(Andrea
Bosic) the chief of the MI6 of Her Majesty. Their mission is : to
combat Goldginger. With heinous stratagems Goldginger want to be the
master of the word and tries to cause a war between USA and URSS. After a lot of adventures, our two stupid heroes foil the conspiration. And as a reward they receive from the British government an old London cab and traditional Scottish dresses. In the last scene we can see again our two friends walking along a motorway. A convertible car arrives. Its driver is Alfredo Mayo and he invites them to get into the car but Franco and Ciccio, alarmed by the equivocal invitation, run away. |
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II. - Remarks |
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It's
again a spy film, a very common genre after the success of "Dr. No" the
first "James Bond" film in 1962. The title of " Due mafiosi contro
Golginger" as the scenes of the film are permanently a parody of other
film with Sean Connery " Golfinger " (1964). The baddy is not the German
actor Gert Fröbe but the Spaniard Fernando Rey and the gold
finger
is now a ginger finger! The music of "Due mafiosi contro
Golginger" has been too a success. Due mafiosi contro Goldginger Music by Piero Umiliani 2.1.- The director Giorgio Simonelli Giorgio
Simonelli's filmography has about 50 titles (dramas, comedies,
historical adventures, Greek or Roman period, religious themes, western
films, etc.). He made also documentaries and in particular one about a
"giro" in the fifties. He worked in Spain in 1958 "Marinai, donne e
guai" (Spanish title: "Marineros, ¡no miréis a las
chicas!") with Ugo Tognazzi & Juan Antonio Riquelme, the son of
the
great Spanish comic actor Antonio
Riquelme.
Giorgio Simonelli (aka Johnny Seemonell) ended his career with some ten comedies which were played by the two Sicilian actors Franco Franchi y Ciccio Ingrassia. Between them, we have first "Gerarchi si muore" (1961), "Due samurai per cento geishe" (1962) and the last ones "I due sanculotti" (during the French revolution - 1789) and the parodic spaghetti western film "I due figli di Ringo", both filmed in 1966, year of the death of the filmmaker. Giorgio Simonelli had a son un Giorgio (born in 1932), who has been too decorator, scriptwriter and film director. 2.2.- Franco Franchi & Ciccio Ingrassia They played both about 130 films, generally parodies of the topical films of this period. Only in 1964 they were in 22 films. They worked in Italy but also in Spain ("Dos toreros de aúpa" / two amazing bullfighters-1966, by Giorgio Simonelli with Elisa Montés, Eduardo Fajardo & Fernando Sancho). They played in one of the two last films with Buster Keaton (1895-1966), "Due marines e un generale" (1965) by Luigi Scattini. Later Luigi Comencini ("The adventures of Pinoccio"-1972-1975; Franco was the cat and Ciccio the fox) and the brothers Taviani ("Kaos"-1984). They were very estimated by Francis Ford Coppola but unfortunately it's impossible to appreciate their specific Sicilian comic genius because of the language barrier even with a translation...
2.3.- The
Spanish or Hispanic actors in "Due mafiosi contro Goldginger"
Fernando Rey (1917-1994) is the baddy. In the sixties, el future mascot actor of the famous director Luis Buñel yet had played in almost 100 films, between them "Mission in Morocco" (1959) by Anthony Squire & Carlos Arévalo,, and "Viridiana" (1961) with Francisco Rabal & Silvia Pinal. But he had not the great international fame who he got finally with "Tristana" (1970) and Catherine Deneuve in the title-role, or with "French connection" (1971). We see also Alejandro Barrera (Lima 1920- Roma 2004) who took the pseudonym of Dakar. He plays in the film the role of Molok, the faithful servant of Goldginger, and the caricature of Odd Job (the US Japanese - Hawaiian actor Harold Sakata - 1920/1982), the servant of Auric Goldfinger who tried to kill with his hat Sean Connery. Alejandro Barrera was before a wrestling champion and he began his career in a cinema in 1964 in an Italian sword and sandal film. But maybe the most important fact in "Due mafiosio contro Goldginger" is the death in live of the agent 007 who is played by the handsome Uruguayan George Hilton (Montevideo 1934-). We will see again the valiant hero in particular in the excellent role of a police officer in "Mio caro assassino" (1972), and in the role of Sartana in "spaghetti westerns" films without speaking of other roles in his very long filmography. The casting of "Goldginger" (ItalianVHS version) mention too Elisa Montés (in an extra role) and Luis Peña but we have not seen or recognized him in spite of our efforts. The name of Alfredo Mayo doesn't appear in the casting of the Italian VHS version but we have discovered him in the last scene! Effectively in this period were frequent the films with well known actors in their own countries (even for very short roles) because of co-production clauses and as a market appeal. But your favourite actor will be also the same year in the casting of the excellent film "The Hunt" directed by a young and future famous Spanish filmmaker Carlos Saura. |
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III. -Conclusion |
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Of
course "Due mafiosi contro Goldginger" (*) is a mockery of the James
Bond film. But it is a characteristic specimen of Italian films which
are well liked in the sixties and for this only reason it's necessary
to discover it. In France actors as Darry Cowl, Jean Lefebvre or the 4
Charlots were the specialists of lousy films as theses of Franco
Franchi & Ciccio Ingrassiay. In Spain we can mention theses of Mariano
Ozores (better
inspired we think) and in particular "Operación Bikini"
(1968)
with José Luis López Vázquez &
Antonio Ozores,
two very improbable secret agents too.
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*
In the first Spanish version Goldginger was named
Goldezenger,
maybe because in Spain in 1967 a allusion about ginger was not decent
in a title!!!
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| Page written : 2009/02/28 - Last correction: 2009/03/31 | ||||||
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