What Am I Doing in the Middle of a Revolution? (1972)

Vittorio Gassman is Guido Guidi, an struggling Italian actor who thinks he’s gotten his big break when a stranger offers to finance an elaborate production of Richard III in Vera Cruz.

Paol Villaggio is Don Albino Moncarlieri, a padre sent to Vera Cruz to prepare for a visit by a Cardinal, a mission he hopes is his last before he gets to return to Italy from the Americas.

Lo and behold, they both wind up embroiled in the Mexican Revolution.

That’s because Guidi’s play is merely a ploy, being staged by clever revolutionaries so that all the artistocrats in Vera Cruz will gather in one place: the theater.

No sooner has the play started by revolutionaries under Pablo Carrasco storm the stage, very literally killing Guidi’s audience.

From that point on, no matter how much they try to stay apart, the actor and the padre plunge from one tight spot to another.

If they aren’t in trouble with the revolutionaires or the regular army, they’re at the mercy of the mercenaries cutting the hands off peasants for a profit.

And Guidi’s acting skills are called on more than once to trick an enemy before he lands one last role: as the revolutionary Emiliano Zapata.

Review:

Sergio Corbucci directed some of the best serious Spaghetti Westerns ever made and some of the best focused on the Mexican revolution (“Companeros” and “The Mercenary”).

But when he tried his hand at Spaghetti comedy, the result was often an overlong bore. That was the case with “Sonny and Jed” and that’s the case here.

Gassman overacts badly as the star of the show. Villaggio is a bit more loveable, but not loveable enough to build a film around.

And by the time the duo has escaped their third of fourth brush with death … well, even an Ennio Morricone score might not be enough to stir your interest.

There is one standout scene. The padre finds himself in front of yet another firing squad. He’s praying for heavenly intervention.

At just that moment, Guidi arrives via airplane, lassos his friend and yanks him into the air, out of the firing squad’s range. The padre’s reaction: “Is that you, Lord?”

Directed by:
Sergio Corbucci

Cast:
Vittorio Gassman … Guido Guidi
Paol Villaggio … Don Albino Moncarlieri
Riccardo Garrone … Peppino
Leo Anchoriz … Pablo Carrasco
Eduardo Fajardo … Col. Herrero
Rossana Yanni … Rossana
Lorezno Robeldo … Mexican captain
Carmen Pericolo … Carmen
Jose Reisgo … Mexican sergeant

Also with: Diana Sorel, Victor Israel, Simon Arriaga, Jose Canalejas, Valentin Torros, Rafael Albaicin, Ricardo Lillo, Florentino Alonso, Antonio Padillo, Antonio Sanchez, Ernesto Vanes

Runtime: 103 min.

aka:
Che c’entriamo noi con la rivoluzione?

Music: Ennio Morricone

Memorable lines:

Padre, as soldiers open his cell and a firing squad does its work outside: “It’s my turn, I suppose.”
Soldier: “Yes. Sorry to keep you waiting, padre.”

Guido Guidi to the padre: “May you fall off the train. And may God show you the way.”

Carrasco, as a firing squad guns down aristocrats in Vera Cruz: “With your blood, I will create a great river. throughout the land, and all Mexicans will drink it.”

Padre to Guido, wearing a cardinal’s robe: “May I say, in my long, spiritual voyage into the depths of the human soul, serving God with alll my heart and humility, my prayers offered for anybody who would ask me, never have I come across a lamb who has not only gone astray, but is so immoral and such a scoundrel, as to have no qualms about using the most blasphemous disguise, even though it is vile and irreverent.”

Padre to Guido: “There is no such thing as luck. There is only the divine providence of God. He sends it to me, and it arrives punctually.”
Army troops ride up. “There they are. Surround them.”

Padre, dangling from an airplane on a rope: “Is that you Lord?”
Guido, pulling on the rope: “No, it’s me, Guido.”

Padre: “If you stayed, I’d have to make an attempt to save your soul. You’ll have to promise me you’ll pray for salvation.”
Guido: “Priest, what’s the matter with you? You mean you still think I’m trying for heaven? You’re wrong. You forget that I’m an actor. For us, immortality is guaranteed. We do our own death scene and get paid for it.”

Trivia:

Gassman, who died in 2000 at age 77, had more than 100 movie and TV credits and was nicknamed The Sir Laurence Olivier of Italy. He appeared in his first film in 1945 and was briefly married to American actress Shelley Winters (April 1952 to June 1954). They had one child together.

Paol Villaggio was a writer as well as an actor and wound up creating the character for which he’s best known, Fantozzi, a bumbling middle-class accountant who’s exploited by his bosses, teased his co-workers and has very little luck in his efforts to “get ahead.” He first played the role in 1975’s “White Collar Blues” and wound up playing the role in 10 Italian comedies before the series ended in 1999.