Odds and Evens

An Italian action comedy. Charlie is an officer in the navy. Calm, bound to the rules and orderly. His brother Johnny is the opposite: he gambles, runs up debts and is always running from somewhere. Charlie is given a job: to expose an organisation running crooked gambling in Miami. They control the dice and turn the tables their own way. The work needs someone on the inside. Charlie finds his brother and persuades him. The two start working together. Charlie makes the plan, Johnny sits at the table, and it ends in a brawl every time. The humour comes from the difference between them. The fights rest on choreography: the punches are exaggerated, nobody is seriously hurt and the violence is used as comedy. The pair made many films together in that period and were for a long time among the biggest earners in Italy. Terence Hill plays Charlie and Bud Spencer plays Johnny. Sergio Corbucci directed; he had made hard westerns before and is entirely on the comic side here. Part of it was shot in Miami. A familiar choice for anyone who likes Italian comedy of the 1970s and the films of this pair. For a viewer expecting a tight plot, the narrative is loose and the film follows its scenes.