"Piedone lo sbirro" or "The Knock Out Cop" or "Sie nannten ihn Plattfuß" is a co-production between Italy and France that resulted in this movie from 1973. It is getting closer to its 50th anniversary and maybe it happened already depending on when you read this review of mine. Right now, we are still more than 2.5 years away. I am certainly a bit surprised to see this is a French co-production because the French element I am missing completely here. This is also not where the film is set. Anyway, it's not too important. What matters more is that this movie is almost exclusively in the Italian language with really rare inclusions of English. This should also surprise nobody because Spencer is of course Italian and almost all the films he is remembered for today are in Italian. And sometimes they include English because they are set in the United States. The director is Steno, a really, really prolific filmmaker from Italy and the name Steno is known to every Bud Spencer fan I believe. He may not have done really acclaimed stuff like Fellini or Pasolini, but his collaborations with Spencer (Pedersoli) will always help him that he will not be forgotten. This is not one of his final works by any means, but closer to the end than to the beginning of his career, even if he kept making movies for a long time afterwards. Also Steno wrote more than 100 screenplay during his career, so it surprises me a bit that here he is credited as the director, but not as the writer. There are three other writers though and this is certainly enough, also without Steno. An interesting trio. One of them is still alive now at almost 100. The second was an Oscar nominee three years before this film was released. The third is credited with the western classic "Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo". Really interesting team we have here. This movie here exists in three different versions at least and you can see the different running times here on the imdb page. Not a massive difference though. The shortest runs is under 100 minutes and the longest is under 105 minutes. Maybe you wondered why I listed the German title above, but Spencer has been such a huge star here in Germany for decades and people still remember him fondly years after his death. I hope the new generation also watches some of his movie, so that he will not be forgotten. I cannot deny that I like the man a lot as well. This one here is of course one of his works without Terence Hill. It also did not get a Golden Screen here in Germany, i.e. the award for films that are really seen by many, many viewers in the theater. Still, it is pretty popular nonetheless and frequently shown on television even almost half a century after its original release. So maybe the more accurate approach would be to wonder why I listed the American title here because Spencer was never huge in American, more of an unknown really. As for the rest of the cast, I cannot say a lot really. Enzo Cannavale deserves a mention. He played in other Spencer films and also in the classic Cinema Paradiso. But that is pretty much it. I am sure that Italian audiences can say more about the supporting cast here. Most of them were pretty prolific anyway.
As for the story and fun component, I think it was tolerable. Some fine moments, but I still must say that there were also lengthy sequences where the entertainment factor could have been higher. One thing that feels a bit unusual here is that Spencer's character is not as physically superior as he is in other films. Maybe they wanted to keep it slightly more realistic. Like you could actually feel that they were going for tension and drama with the opening sequence up there on the building. Spencer's character there is even physically superior initially when fighting this Black fella up there who apparently lost his marbles. But no surprise, the Black guy is not a villain here. Especially in those films where Hill is part of the cast too, they always go easy on Black people, so no surprise he almost turns into a friend eventually. He realizes that Rizzo (Spencer) saved his life here. In general, Rizzo is pretty much a saint you could almost say. Look at all the people he helps in here. The guy he tells to turn himself in because he will get a less severe punishment this way. The really small dude who is his friend and who he even apologizes to. The woman who gets injured by the villains. The drugged boy. He is on good terms with kids too. So you can basically say that Rizzo here is a character who supports weaker people with his fistpower. I know this fits Spencer's characters' in almost every movie he is in, but here it is a bit more than usual. By the way, even without the Golden Screen, this film here was beloved enough to be turned into a bit of a series as Spencer reprises his role as Rizzo in several other movies in the following years. I wish this one here could have been as much fun as the poster suggests, which is honestly maybe the most hilarious poster I have seen from any Spencer movie, but it is not on some occasions. Nowhere near my favorite Spencer films. There are good moments though, for example when he punches some really big bald guy who belongs to the villain. The first punch at least. The second punch is not this one-sided and again we have a situation in which Spencer's character is not really as strong and invincible as he is in other films. Sometimes he is even on the floor here like at the very end. When he goes and beats up the bad guy for what he did to the woman, it is also a fun moment really. But there is, in addition to the usual fighting scenes, also a great deal of story in here, more than in most other Spencer films in terms of twists. Look at the corrupt cop near the end. Look at Rizzo talking to the Mafia folks with whom he is not on entirely bad terms, even if he is from the opposing side of the law (well, then not anymore however if we are really strict). Or look at the guy who got a bullet to his forehead and who we see there lying with the wound. I am not sure if all this is such a good idea. I mean for me to really appreciate it, I would have needed a better plot to be honest. I have seen that too from other Spencer films (at least one), but here it is never really appealing or interesting. I guess than I prefer the simple pointless movies starring Spencer than a shot at more that turns out unsuccessfully. Maybe fewer characters could also have been a better idea. Had this film not been with my beloved Bud, I could very well have taken away two stars here and this turned it into a negative recommendation all in all. But as it is with him, I still stay cautiously optimistic. So this film seemed a lot more serious than I expected overall. But not all of these more serious scenes were on the forgettable side. For example when they get into this drug lab, it was fun. First the silent way and then how Spencer verbally and physically gets in the way of the bad guys there. That was alright. And all the fight sequences were fun anyway. And one thing I really liekd was the final scene here with everybody eating spaghetti together. That was nice and actually even got me in the mood for spaghetti as well. Haha. Okay, I think that is enough now. I give this film a positive recommendation, but a bit more on the cautious side. I think this is a good watch, but I think that you should probably watch other Spencer films first. The serious focus on drugs and crime is too much sometimes for the film's own good. Thumbs-up nonetheless. Spencer's voice is also a delight as always and with that I am referring to the German dub of course, which honestly may be even better than his real voice. Not only are the translations so nice in terms of style, verbally I mean, but Wolfgang Hess is always so much fun too. May he and Bud rest in peace.
As for the story and fun component, I think it was tolerable. Some fine moments, but I still must say that there were also lengthy sequences where the entertainment factor could have been higher. One thing that feels a bit unusual here is that Spencer's character is not as physically superior as he is in other films. Maybe they wanted to keep it slightly more realistic. Like you could actually feel that they were going for tension and drama with the opening sequence up there on the building. Spencer's character there is even physically superior initially when fighting this Black fella up there who apparently lost his marbles. But no surprise, the Black guy is not a villain here. Especially in those films where Hill is part of the cast too, they always go easy on Black people, so no surprise he almost turns into a friend eventually. He realizes that Rizzo (Spencer) saved his life here. In general, Rizzo is pretty much a saint you could almost say. Look at all the people he helps in here. The guy he tells to turn himself in because he will get a less severe punishment this way. The really small dude who is his friend and who he even apologizes to. The woman who gets injured by the villains. The drugged boy. He is on good terms with kids too. So you can basically say that Rizzo here is a character who supports weaker people with his fistpower. I know this fits Spencer's characters' in almost every movie he is in, but here it is a bit more than usual. By the way, even without the Golden Screen, this film here was beloved enough to be turned into a bit of a series as Spencer reprises his role as Rizzo in several other movies in the following years. I wish this one here could have been as much fun as the poster suggests, which is honestly maybe the most hilarious poster I have seen from any Spencer movie, but it is not on some occasions. Nowhere near my favorite Spencer films. There are good moments though, for example when he punches some really big bald guy who belongs to the villain. The first punch at least. The second punch is not this one-sided and again we have a situation in which Spencer's character is not really as strong and invincible as he is in other films. Sometimes he is even on the floor here like at the very end. When he goes and beats up the bad guy for what he did to the woman, it is also a fun moment really. But there is, in addition to the usual fighting scenes, also a great deal of story in here, more than in most other Spencer films in terms of twists. Look at the corrupt cop near the end. Look at Rizzo talking to the Mafia folks with whom he is not on entirely bad terms, even if he is from the opposing side of the law (well, then not anymore however if we are really strict). Or look at the guy who got a bullet to his forehead and who we see there lying with the wound. I am not sure if all this is such a good idea. I mean for me to really appreciate it, I would have needed a better plot to be honest. I have seen that too from other Spencer films (at least one), but here it is never really appealing or interesting. I guess than I prefer the simple pointless movies starring Spencer than a shot at more that turns out unsuccessfully. Maybe fewer characters could also have been a better idea. Had this film not been with my beloved Bud, I could very well have taken away two stars here and this turned it into a negative recommendation all in all. But as it is with him, I still stay cautiously optimistic. So this film seemed a lot more serious than I expected overall. But not all of these more serious scenes were on the forgettable side. For example when they get into this drug lab, it was fun. First the silent way and then how Spencer verbally and physically gets in the way of the bad guys there. That was alright. And all the fight sequences were fun anyway. And one thing I really liekd was the final scene here with everybody eating spaghetti together. That was nice and actually even got me in the mood for spaghetti as well. Haha. Okay, I think that is enough now. I give this film a positive recommendation, but a bit more on the cautious side. I think this is a good watch, but I think that you should probably watch other Spencer films first. The serious focus on drugs and crime is too much sometimes for the film's own good. Thumbs-up nonetheless. Spencer's voice is also a delight as always and with that I am referring to the German dub of course, which honestly may be even better than his real voice. Not only are the translations so nice in terms of style, verbally I mean, but Wolfgang Hess is always so much fun too. May he and Bud rest in peace.