Rock Hudson and Claudia Cardinale star in this spy thrilla from the Gory 1960s. You'll also see some other familiar faces in here... Ellen Corby was Grandma on the Waltons, and Leon Askin was General Burkhalter on Hogan's Heroes. Corby seems to be Hudon's housekeeper (?). Hudson is Captain Harmon on the police force, while Cardinale is Esmerelda, a self-declared thief, fresh over from Italy. They jet off to Austria, to return the jewels Esmeralda had taken. They meet up with Roger, an old flame of Esmerelda's, and suddenly Harmon wants to leave. Jealousy, I guess. Askin is Wellman, the police chief for the town where they must try to return the jewels. There is one titillating scene as Harmon must spray Esmerelda down with champagne, when the room temperature gets too hot. Esmerelda is only wearing her under-garments, due to the high temperature, of course! Some surprises in here, which I won't give away. The sound track is so far-mismatched, that it was probably dubbed after the fact. Then we're jetting off to bella Roma, for some more trouble. more twists. Written and directed by Francesco Maselli, who appears to be still working into the 2000s, into his 80s ! Its pretty good.. Entertaining. starts slow, but picks up speed as it goes.
... View MoreThis is a dreadful film. Rock Hudson speaks as if he were dubbed. Cardinale is unbearably kittenish and cutesy-poo as she deploys her three facial expressions and the "plot' is incomprehensible. Not one person acts as if she or he were a normal human being. It is hard not to lose the will to live after about half an hour of this tosh. The scenes of them behaving like idiots in Rome are straight out of the viagra school of advertising and one expects a voice over announcing that you should see a doctor if your boredom lasts for more than four hours. A forgettable score by Enrico Morrioni, an unbelievable script that seems to have been run through an automatic translation machine, two stars at the bottom of their game, direction, such as it is, that uses every cliché from caper films in seemingly random order--what's not to hate?
... View MoreOnce again I'm guessing that Rock Hudson signed on to make this film because of the trip to Vienna and Rome he was getting. Those fringe benefits are important especially when you know this caper film is going to be a Thanksgiving special.Rock and co-star Claudia Cardinale basically go through the motions with zero chemistry between them in A Fine Pair. Hudson did a pair of films in the Sixties with another Italian co-star Gina Lollobrigida and those two movies had a lot more going for them than this one. Hudson is ostensibly a police captain in New York who gets a visit in New York from the daughter of a colleague in Italy.Claudia's a rebellious child coming from a law enforcement family she's become a thief. But ostensibly she's had a change of heart and now wants Rock's help to return some swag she robbed over in Vienna.So Rock drops everything, career, marriage, etc., to go do a reverse caper in Vienna. Of course that's hardly all, but the film moved so slow I doubt you'll wait to find out.A Fine Pair will never be in anyone's list of top Rock Hudson films.
... View MoreDespite the two prominent stars in its cast, "A Fine Pair" has never been released on home video, and is seldom broadcast on television. It doesn't take long upon watching it to figure out why it's been banished to obscurity. Though Hudson and Cardinale have shown talent and charm elsewhere, you wouldn't know it with this movie. Cardinale is downright annoying, and Hudson's obvious bored demeanor makes it clear he is wishing he was elsewhere. Needless to say, the scenes where the two are paired up - which make up most of the movie - generate absolutely no chemistry. But the problems with the movie go beyond the stars. The movie has an often cheap feel, from the tacky sets to the wretched dubbing. The biggest problem is that while it's a caper movie, it moves along at a deadly slow pace and generates no excitement or suspense. The only redeeming feature is the musical score by Ennio Morricone, though even fans of his will probably admit that this music is far from his best work.
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