Banana Joe

Bud Spencer lives in a small village. He transports the bananas they grow to the nearest city in a ramshackle barge. He never sets foot on the shore. The village, the river, and the boat are his world. But crooked businessman Gianfranco Barra has bribed his way into a license to build a banana factory and a casino in Spencer's village. And Spencer does not have a license to deal in bananas. As far as the law is concerned, he doesn't exist.

All of which sounds like it could be a dire tale of a natural man ground by the millstones of so-called civilization. Fortunately, Spencer co-wrote the script, so it turns into a story about how civilization cannot contain him, with plenty of gag sequences. None are particularly original, but Spencer and his cast mates perform them with evident gusto, which goes a long way towards making this funny. From his straightforward courtship of Marina Langner, to the depredations of con man Mario Scarpetta, to drill sergeant Giorgio Bracardi, it's an amiable, loose-jointed comedy.