Cinema Egzotik: The Night of Bud Spencer

He was big, strong and unbeatable. Born in Naples in 1929, Carlo Pedersoli made a career as an Olympic swimmer – he was the first Italian to swim the 100 metres freestyle in under a minute – and also obtained a law degree. He was to achieve lasting fame, however, as Terence Hill”s brawny counterpart in spaghetti westerns. His favourite technique was thumping his hapless opponents with both fists, and leave no man standing.

Martin Koolhoven: “I”ve been a fan all my life. I saw most of his films in the cinema, even when most people had called it a day. It”s always remained a guilty pleasure for me.” Koolhoven calls Spencer and Hill “probably the last truly great film duo”. “They were the ambassadors of the action comedy film, a genre that doesn”t really exist anymore.”

Film distributor Robbert Wijsmuller (Concorde Films) released the highly popular films to theatres in the Netherlands. His film archive – Wijsmuller died in 2001 – has been transferred to EYE”s collection, so that the film museum now manages a major part of the Four Fists films.

They Call Me TrinityEnzo Barboni (IT, 1970) 113'Italian spoken, English subtitlesTerence Hill and Bud Spencer star in their accustomed roles as the trigger-happy good-for-nothing and the dumb muscle man in a flimsy storyline involving a major who”s trying to grab land belonging to a group of Mormon farmers. His evil plans are foiled by the Bambino brothers (Hill & Spencer). The grateful Mormons reward the brothers with land to farm, but it”s not really their kind of life.+Who finds a friend, finds a treasureSergio Corbucci (IT/US, 1981) 108'English spoken, Dutch subtitlesAlan and Charlie are on a small island in the Pacific hunting for a war treasure that was left there by the Japanese army in World War II. Bud Spencer is assisted by failed Classics student Mario Girotti (Terence Hill).