DOWN & DIRTY Movie Review

Brutti, Sporchi, e Cattivi
Ugly, Dirty and Bad

The title was whittled down by the American distributor from Ugly, Dirty and Bad, but Down & Dirty is still a perfectly apt title for Ettore Scola's hilarious, raw portrait of a riotously degenerate extended family living outside of Rome. Nino Manfredi plays the head of this clan, who's so mean that when his family spikes his mostaccioli with what seems like a pound of rat poison, it barely slows him down—though it does make him meaner. (He's a wealthy miser, having gotten a big insurance payout for losing an eye. It was an accident that left this mean, dirty man—to paraphrase Henny Youngman's famous second opinion joke—ugly, too.) Down & Dirty features the kind of broad, fork-waving, violent physical humor that's simply a matter of taste, and there are certainly those who'll find this whole sordid group of characters utterly without redeeming features. That, of course, is exactly what I love about it.

NEXT STOP … The Pizza Triangle, We All Loved Each Other So Much, Passione d'Amoré

1976 115m/C IT Nino Manfredi, Francesco Anniballi, Maria Bosco; D:Ettore Scola; W:Ruggero Maccari, Ettore Scola; C: Dario Di Palma; M:Armando Trovajoli. Cannes Film Festival '76: Best Director (Scola). VHS, Closed Caption