Revenge of the Pink Panther (1978)

A drug dealer has a dent in his reputation and decides to assassinate a famous police chief as a means to restore it and thus secure an upcoming drug deal. It turns out that at the moment of the attempt someone else is in the police chief's car instead of him. The police chief takes advantage of being presumed dead to conduct a secret investigation on the criminals who attempted against his life.

Much of the humor here is a rehashing of jokes which are recurrent on the series. It manages to be funny at times; at other times it is mildly annoying, or simply dull. There is an idea here (a female actress which plays a male character impersonating a woman) which may have been the germ to the filmmaker's remake, a few years later, of Viktor und Viktoria (1933). The last act, at a Hong Kong shipyard, has an uncanny resemblance to one of the hypotheses put forward regarding the recent catastrophe in Beirut.

Rating: 45

Rio Fantasia (1957)

Four friends from a small town who have formed a musical quartet move to a big city in the hopes of becoming widely known. A TV producer becomes interested in one of them, a woman, and rejects the remaining three men. She becomes a star, and her former companions struggle to land a contract as a trio.

Drama with some comic bits and some musical numbers. Conventional and predictable, but done with a certain competence; the musical numbers are mildly agreeable.

Rating: 34

Cala a Boca, Etelvina (1958)

Adelino lives above his means and is constantly harassed by creditors. He fails to keep his payments on the fur coat he bought for his wife, and, after it has to be returned, she decides to leave him. On that same day, Adelino's uncle, from whom he expects to inherit a fortune, drops in to stay for a few days. Adelino doesn't want his uncle to know his wife left him, and so he makes his maid pass off as his wife.

Unimaginative comedy. The second half is filled with mildly attractive musical numbers. Not a terrible film; it is effectively staged and paced.

Rating: 33

O Gato de Madame (1956)

A wealthy woman's cat escapes and she places an ad promising a reward to the person who finds it and returns it. A poor shoe shiner finds the lost animal and plans to collect the reward, but is kidnapped by a gang who also covets the reward.

Poor comedy with a very basic comicity. The 50s ambiance and cityscapes are quite interesting to watch, though.

Rating: 32

Zui quan (1978)

 English title: Drunken Master

A young man gets involved in a series of conflicts and his father hires an old martial arts instructor with a reputation of extreme rigor to discipline him. The young man is terrified at first and flees; he eventually accepts to undergo the training.

Curious fight comedy with elaborate choreography and childish humor. The central thesis of enhancing fighting performance through alcoholic intoxication is absurd but probably just intended for comic effect. The protagonist learns in the end to stop fearing his feminine side and instead use it to his advantage.

Rating: 51

Fathers' Day (1997)

Based on the film Les compères (1983).

When her teenage son runs away from home, a woman looks for an old boyfriend and tells him he is the boy's father and asks him to help find him. Then she phones another old boyfriend and tells him the same thing. Those two guys accidentally meet and join in a search for the missing kid.

Unremarkable comedy which might help pass the time in a desperate situation. The dialogue has a tendency to try too hard to be funny, with variable results. I haven't watched the French original, but what we see here is a really uninspired comedy.

Rating: 33

Uma Certa Lucrécia (1957)

A seamstress falls asleep while reading and dreams she is Lucrezia Borgia.

While the idea behind this movie is interesting, the humor displayed in the dialogue is not funny at all, and was surely aimed at a very undemanding audience. The only funny thing in the movie is the carnival costume which is being finished at the protagonist's workshop. On the other hand, if you forget the humor and imagine this as a strictly adventure movie, it isn't as unbearable as all that, and has decent production values for a Brazilian movie.

Rating: 31

The Rains of Ranchipur (1955)

Based on the novel The Rains Came, by Louis Bromfield, first published in 1937.

A rich slut visiting India falls in love with a physician who is inexperienced in matters of the heart. A local princess of sorts is against the romance. There is also an American expatriate who drinks all the time. The resolution of dramatic conflicts is accelerated by the arrival of an earthquake which destroys a dam and causes a general flood.

Disagreeable drama. It's hard to take an interest in these characters and their conflicts seem most of the time overblown. The  romantic parts are interminable. Most of the actors seem ill at ease in their parts, though admittedly the leading lady is fairly convincing in hers. The 1939 filmic version of this novel was, if memory serves, reasonably engaging and effective, which proves that the fault is not in the overall plot.

Rating: 31

Golias Contra o Homem das Bolinhas (1969)

Augusto is a poor office worker who is bullied by his wife at home. He meets a prostitute in a bar and gets her telephone number. He sets a date with her at her apartment and, when he gets there, finds her dead. He becomes the main suspect of having murdered her.

The main actor in this film is billed second to a famous TV comic whose real name appears in the film's title. It's a mostly predictable and tame comedy in which the unassertive protagonist gets involved in a lot of trouble; there's also a poorly-done sequence featuring the protagonist riding in the sidecar of a motorcycle driven by the semi-idiot played by the top-billed comic. This is yet another entry in the prolific Lima's career, this time unusually exploring the cityscapes of São Paulo instead of his native Rio de Janeiro.

Rating: 31