Who Finds a Friend Finds a Treasure

Who Finds a Friend Finds a Treasure (Chi Trova Un Amico Trova Un Tesoro) (1981)

Runtime: 106 minutes

Directed by: Sergio Corbucci

Starring: Terence Hill, Bud Spencer, John Fujioka, Louise Bennett, Sal Borgese

From: A few different Italian and American companies

A movie I mainly selected due to its title. In the past I’ve viewed a few different Terence Hill/Bud Spencer pictures. Those around the world (a large percentage of my mutuals aren’t from America) may be surprised that the duo and their movies don’t really have a cultural footprint in the United States, unlike in Europe and elsewhere. What I’ve seen was incredibly silly yet still amusing so once in a blue moon I’ll be happy to check out something else involving that heralded duo.

This was one of the MANY Italian productions of the time that filmed around Miami, Florida. The scenario that brought the pair together this time: Hill was a gambler who screwed over some gangster types after a bad bet at the horse races while Spencer is an actor sailing around the world to plug marmalade… he soon then tosses said marmalade over the ship as it tastes like slop. How lucky then that Hill is a stowaway on the boat—he was given a treasure map out of a Lucky Charms box (why not?) by his uncle.

Turns out, it is World War II treasure on a Pacific island-the setting the movie isn’t Florida-and besides the stereotypical natives who tended to speak gibberish (progressive, the movie ain’t), there’s also a Japanese soldier who doesn’t know World War II is over… yes, there were several holdouts from World War II but Hiroo Onoda was the most famous. He wasn’t convinced until 1974 and an explorer found him that the war ended in 1945. The movie’s Kamasuka was rather clearly based on Onoda.

There are also pirates; they steal some of the natives for usage on their ships. How those pirates were portrayed was rather… ahem, curious. It may sound like a gag when I explain that the pirates were dressed as if they stepped off the set of Cruising, but it’s true! The exact same black leather outfits that were shown by patrons of the Ramrod; WHY this was done aside from making the audience think, “Oh, they’re gay pirates!” I have no explanation. As the natives on the island are also crude caricatures, the movie hasn’t aged all that well.

Be that as it may, the movie is exactly what you’d expect from the Hill/Spencer duo: silly comedy, an indestructible Spencer beating everyone up, OOT villains, a catchy score like only the Italians could do, beans eaten... It isn’t the favorite I’ve seen from the duo (and it is awkward how the movie opens HARD on Hill’s uncle mentioning the treasure without any opening credits, title card, or even an establishing shot) but was still fine as nonsense which still had some stellar gags… plus those gay pirates!