"Piedone d'Egitto" or "Plattfuß am Nil" or "Flatfoot in Egypt" is an Italian, mostly Italian-language film from 1980, so this one just had its 40th anniversary and the half-centennial is not even a decade away anymore, probably considerably less depending on when you show up here to read this review of mine. This film is of course part of a quadrology of films in which Bud Spencer plays Inspector Rizzo. The first of these films was from 1973 and this, the final installment, is from seven years later. In the thirs film, Spencer's Rizzo was already in Africa, so they had to some up with a different title because he stays on the continent, but moves up north where the locals have lighter skin, so it does not feel too much of a copy of the third film You also see Egypt's trademark sights on the photo here in the background. I am of course talking about the Pyramids and the Sphinx. The former are not featured too much in here, but there is a funny comment on the Sphinx from Rizzo on one occasion here referring to her missing nose. Almost had a touch of Obelix there. The proportions fit as well. But it was not really what he said, but the words he used that made it one of the funniest moment. Like he called the nose a cucumber I think. It's not too funny when I say it now, but with Spencer's voice, it was pretty hilarious. Of course, I was watching the German version again. I read that even in the Italian originals Spencer got dubbed pretty frequently, but in this film here, for once, you can actually hear his real voice. Interesting.
The poster is a lot of fun anyway. The crocodile reference is also interesting because this is where it makes sense that Spencer was a former Olympic swimmer, so he swam to safety from a crocodile in this movie and he did not beat it up as you could guess from the title. And once more his words afterwards are hilarious when we have him make a reference that the crocodile needs to swim faster for such a big breakfast. Hilarious. In a good way. But aren's crocodile fast runners too? Surprised to see it swim away then, but it's okay. This is no biology documentary. Also of course this inclusion is interesting if we take a look at the German title of the Spencer/Hill film "Das Krokodil und sein Nilpferd" from the year before. Also on the poster you can see Enzo Cannavale and Baldwyn Dakile. Namely on the right. Cannavale was in all the Rizzo films as some kind of hopeless sidekick and his character is everybody's punching ball really and this does not change here. Even the little African boy played by Dakile uses the man as a punching ball, like when he talks to him in the end when Cannavale's character is in danger of dying when all this sand is coming down on him. Dakile was also in the previous film of course, this is where they met him. I must say I did not like this character too much honestly. He felt a bit annoying to me all in all. In this film here and in the one before. I preferred the silent Asian kid from the second movie. But that one was even younger I think and we also know nothing about what happened to Dakile in real life. He quit acting quickly.
The director is once again the really prolific Steno and he is also one of the three writers here. Not a given because this was not the case for all Rizzo films. His co-writers have interesting bodies of work here too, especially Bolzoni with his Eastwood film, but also Franciosa, who was probably not too far away from an Oscar nomination for his most known work. By the way, it says here on imdb that this film runs for 95 minutes, but this is certainly not the only version out there because there is at least one other and that is approximately ten minutes longer. As for the rest of the cast, Robert Loggia is a bit of a big name here for sure and I personally am always happy to see Riccardo Pizzuti, a regular on Spencer films. Karl-Otto Alberty is an antagonist here and this German actor is still alive today and in the third Rizzo film, there were so many blond villains and here he is the only one, even if he is not the main antagonist. But he is still alive today at almost 90. Was born the very year Hitler came to power. Man, it's been so long. Another mention goes out to Cinzia Monreale. Don't know anything about her as an actress, but she was pretty stunning and easily could have played a Bond girl too for example. Maybe the most beautiful actress from every Spencer movie or at least a definite contender and if I say so, as somebody who is not into blondes usually, that means something. Speaking of Bond movies, these Rizzo films sometimes feel as if they have an ounce of 007 to them too and I never really recognized this before. You can see that during those days when they got made, Bond was already a really big thing. Even if somebody else was getting the aforementioned potential Bond girl here.
But it is not just that these films are set all around the globe and that the protagonist takes out dangerous villains and sometimes gets a little help from locals, but it is also the bad guys. They slightly feel like villains from the Bond film series at times. This refers to the blond fella I already mentioned, the main antagonist who almost manages to kill Cannavale's character (again this one is really an obstacle, also how he was captured at the carpet store) and also this little dude really reminded me of Hervé Villechaize's character at times. Not just the size, but also his speed and how there was some unintentional(?) comedy to him. But he showed us he is dangerous when he almost kills one character before he can give out important information to Rizzo. This scene in the carpet store was also among the best, even if the dialogues were all over the place and we heard people talking when not even their mouths were moving. Surely a bit strange. But the funniest moment also involves the fella whose life is saved by Rizzo, but already early on in this scene when he tries to kill Rizzo himself, but is knocked out and after taking care of the dwarf, Rizzo takes a look at him again and sees that he is still alive and what he says there right before checking was again really hilarious. Again, impossible to get the comedy through by writing only, but I liked it a lot and laughed quite a bit there. "Let's see if he still has electricity." and then he steps on the dude's foot and that one screams loudly. Well, Flatfoot's feet are really nothing you'd want on your feet, that mush is safe. So it was also how over the top it all felt, for example with the Tarzan scream from the little dude there and that is a crucial difference compared to 007 movies. Also that we almost always hear music to keep things lights. And nobody is really killed. The key story here includes an important scientist who got abducted by the bad guys and this is why Rizzo returns to Africa to free him. Always with him Caputo (kinda fitting he sounds like "kaputt") and little Bodo (isn't this a German name?), who always manages to sneak in still, like when he is hiding and eating all these meatballs. This scientist looked a bit like Einstein to me with his hair and beard, not sure if this was a coincidence.
Anyway, in the previous films, especially the first two, drugs were a key issue in terms of what the bad guys did. In the third as well, even if there was as much focus on stolen diamonds. But with this one here, we only have one very brief drug reference early on, unless I missed out on it. It is really about a specific insect that was able to find petroleum which made it really priceless and this aforementioned scientist is the man who found it and the evil guys, really rich ones too as the main villain seems to be a figure of authority, want the scientist to tell them his secret and make sure they get access to this insect and, as a consequence, also to the oil. Oil has also been a big thing already at the end of the third film, so nothing entirely new here, even if the connection is a bit vague because in that previous movie, it was really more about coincidence. So I already mentioned some of my favorite moments from this film here and there are others too. Overall, I don't think this was a step back in quality, but I am generally not the biggest fan of the Rizzo films. This one here is a good as the previous ones I would say, but if we talk about everything Spencer did, then he has quite a handful better films than those from the Rizzo quadrology. But this one here is definitely not bad or anything. No hesitation for me in giving it a positive recommendation too. Scenes like the one with the snake and the music or the one inside the carpet store and several others make this a rewarding watch as well. It could even be my favorite from the series. The fun component is there too, especially when Buddy once again takes care of the disguised locals (some of them are with the bad guy) and their swords and knives can't save them. Most of the time, his fists are enough, but here and there he also picks up a wooden table to make thinks more entertaining. I suggest you go for the watch here.
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