Crime Busters (1976/Somerville)

 

Picture: C     Sound: C     Extras: C-     Film: C-

 

 

It is amazing how much fun some of the old independently produced films of the 1970s were.  As the major studios were scrambling to get their acts back together, literally hundreds of independent production found prosperity and even made some decent films.  Bud Spencer and Terence Hill had so much success with the Trinity series of Spaghetti Westerns that they started to make other action comedies and for a while, they were successful enough to keep making them.  Unfortunately, Enzo Barboni’s Crime Busters (1976) is not the best of them.

 

This one has them as two down-and-outs who rob a bank and when things get too hot for their own good, they con their way into a police academy (not the inspiration for the silly franchise that is about to be revived) so the police investigators cannot find them.  This is a comedy, but this critic was not laughing much.  If you like the leads, you might get some chuckles, but otherwise, this is a curio at best.  Oh, and this is the longer 115 minutes version.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image is softer than it should be for a film with so many nice naturalistic outdoor shots and what looks like rich color in its time.  However, this is a generation down and has both doubling and hazing in any detail where there is movement.  As well, color is held back.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono shows its age with flat fidelity and the same darn song played over and over again.  Extras include a six-minute interview with Spencer, stills, text bios and trailers for this & other Hill/Spencer films.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo