Once Upon a Crime (1992 Eugene Levy)

Based on the 1960 Crimen (Mario Camerini) with Alberto Sordi, the type of Italian farce involving missing dogs, bodies in suitcases and the Riviera, adapted from the original by Steve Kluger and 'quickly rewritten' by Charles Shyer and Nancy Meyers*. A big mess, it's largely the responsibility of actor Levy (his only theatrical feature, I'm pleased to report), who pushes for embarrassing over-acting from most of the cast - Richard Lewis (who's not a starring actor), John Candy, James Belushi, and Sean Young, leaving only Cybill Shepherd and Giancarlo Giannini with some dignity. With Ornella Muti and George Hamilton, in eyebrow-raising mode.

Peopled by unlikable and unbelievable characters and situations, the film keeps aiming for farce but succeeds only in invoking the playground, with increasingly frantic music to match.

Belushi realising his career may be over..

It was shot by Giuseppe Rotunno, too little in Rome, and then in the Monte Carlo that doesn't look terribly appealing.

Still there are one or two moments that make you smile, and it's good to see really crap films now and then, to realise it's not as easy as it looks, and learn from the mistakes (like, 'Will this kind of story work in 1992?' - No).

* According to 'Nancy Meyers' by Deborah Jermyn (2017).