Sherlock de Araque (1958)

*spoilers ahead*
Deodato and Sertório are two cops who work on night patrol duty. Deodato is having troubles with his married life, since he only meets his wife for a few minutes when he comes home in the morning, and she is off to work. Sertório is unmarried, and intends to remain so, despite the insistent pressures he is getting from a girl he is seeing, who is a maid in a middle class home and bakes him cakes he loves more than her. Deodato is a lover of deductive science, and is taking a course on criminology in his off duty hours. He claims to be able to tell who is a criminal just by looking at a person. He is of course always wrong. The duo have their eyes on a man acting stealthily at night, and they even spot him through a window in his house wielding a big knife; they become sure he is a serial killer who is wanted by the police. It turns out he is a mere killer of chicken who is afraid of getting caught and having to pay a fine due to non-payment of a permit. On the other hand, another man they are passingly acquainted with, whom they take for an upstanding citizen, is actually a megacriminal who is the mastermind behind the planned robbery of the vault of a fancy clothes store. As it turns out, the robbers do not build the tunnel correctly and surface at the room where a fashion show is being held. They decide to kidnap the store owner instead and ask for a ransom. There is a search for the kidnapped businessman and several fights ensue. Other subplots involve the son and daughter of the clothes store owner, and their conflicts with their father, over a lazy lifestyle in the case of the son, and over a romantic choice in the case of the daughter. There is also a pickpocket who manages to repeatedly elude the policemen and ends up helping them locate the kidnappers' hideout.
*end of spoilers*

Weak comedy with childish dumbed-down humor and even some circus antics from one of the leading players, who was indeed a circus clown. There is plenty of action in the last section, but it is also of an extremely dumbed-down nature. There is only one musical number featuring a rock and roll band named Os Terríveis ("The Terribles"), a name which suggests some modicum of self-criticism, though they aren't as bad as all that.

Rating: 31