6/10
How to fill 90 minutes with 5 running gags
13 January 2007
Lazy writer Gino Capone came up with 5 different routines featuring a bunch of marginally overlapping characters and thought that would be enough to build an entire film around. No such luck. All five of them run out of steam within thirty minutes, leaving the audience hopelessly waiting for a surprising plot twist to arrive. The Main offenders are bumbling window cleaners Alvaro and Gianni (Vitali and Ciardo using their own first names), who accidentally witness the assassination of a British captain (Renzo Ozzano) by a Russian spy (Gordon Mitchell) and spend the rest of the running time doing just that. The Captain, who by the way has planted a bomb in the hotel for some undisclosed reason, was traveling with the commander of a group of Italian marines (Renzo Palmer), who picked out this hotel to have a rendezvous with Paola (Senatore), the Dottoressa of the title (though she only practices this profession in one scene). Unfortunately for them, the sailor's wife (Marisa Mell) arrives for a surprise visit.

The remaining three subplots are even less well defined (and indeed not all of them make it all the way to the finish): Renzo Montagnani plays a man who's suicide attempts are constantly interrupted, usually by Mitchell chasing Alvaro and Gianni. Lucio Montanaro is a bus boy trying to get some desperately needed medicine up to a man suffering from earth shaking flatulence and Sabrina Siani is the hotel's health nurse who keeps neglecting her patients, resulting in cartoon like gags and more chases down the hotel hallways. About half way through Alvaro and Gianni swap their cleaner's overalls for a couple of sailor outfits, which for some reason makes them instantly attractive to women. After some of the subplots have dropped out of the race (without even resolving themselves properly), it turns into the usual face-slapping extravaganza in, under and around hotel beds and closets. Eventually the British captain, whom the Russian has been moving around "Weekend at Bernie's" style, miraculously regains consciousness long enough to remind the audience of the McGuffin he planted. But I'm afraid most viewers will have given up on this one long before the final big bang.

6 out of 10
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