Franco and Ciccio were the Sicilian Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. Except that Franco did not sing, so maybe he was more like Bud Abbot. Ciccio was certainly aping Jerry Lewis though. And in "I Due figli di Trinita", they parody that other Italian duo Bud Spencer and Terence Hill. Except that they can't fight. The two of them made more than a 100 pictures together, often shot in just a couple of days, and it show. There is no real plot, just a lot of silly stuff strung together. Some jokes are stolen from another man called Hill, namely Benny. They in turn seem to have inspired Mel Brooks.
The two comedians run a service station in the old West where cowboys go to buy second hand wheels or get their horse washed in an elaborate contraption. One of the most inspired gags features a gumball machine that produces bullets instead of toys. The first third of the picture concerns a lot of unrelated gags featuring different customers at the service station. Things change when Franco and Ciccio get in trouble and an old woman claiming to be Calamity Jane shows up to save them. She tells them about the demise of their famous father Trinita (originally portrayed by Terrence Hill) and sets them off on a quest to find his treasure.
Posing as butch outlaws, the so called brothers mount up and get into a poker game at a rough saloon. Ciccio knows all of Benny Hill's old card tricks and comes up with a couple of his own. Along the way they spoof some of Sergio Leone's most famous scenes and main villain Alex Armstrong hires a red haired seductress to steal the treasure from under their noses exactly two years before Hedley Lamarr contacted Lilli von Schtupp. Having fulfilled their quest, F and C are happy to go back to their station and resume the unconnected skits as before. However, Ching Chang Chan, an old enemy of their father's shows up.
Luckily a bunch of monks whom they met during their search for gold arrive just in time for a drawn out fight scene in which all the props in the service station have to be used at least 15 times. We all remember the way Ennio Morricone often repeated bits and pieces of his brilliant scores in Leone's films to great effect. Composer Sante Maria Romitelli tries to copy this in "I due figli di Trinita" but fails miserably. The theme for I due figli is not all that amusing to begin with, and during the big brawl it is played each and every time Franco or Ciccio is on screen (we should be grateful that the monks do most of the fighting) Perhaps the editor is really to blame, as it was probably him who sped up this annoying tune and slowed it down again to add a little variation. It becomes extremely grating and when the fight finally ends to segue into a happy ending it is a great relief.
5 out of 10
