| Convoy Buddies | |
| Producer: | Mino Loy |
| Cinematography: | Sebastiano Celeste Vicente Minaya |
Convoy Buddies (Italian: Simone e Matteo - Un gioco da ragazzi, Spanish; Castilian: Simón y Mateo, also known as Kid Stuff) is a 1975 Italian-Spanish adventure-comedy film directed by Giuliano Carnimeo and starring Michael Coby and Paul L. Smith,[1] [2] a couple formed with the purpose of copying the successful films of the duo Terence Hill and Bud Spencer.[1] It was followed by The Diamond Peddlers
The film was selected for American release by Film Ventures International, and producer Edward L. Montoro changed Smith's name to Bob Spencer and Cantafora's name to Terrence Hall.[3] Smith sued,[4] successfully arguing that an actor's name recognition is vital to his career.[5] The judicial system agreed and ruled against FVI, which paid Smith damages and court costs.[6]
Toby and Butch are a couple of incompetent crooks who get a truck hauling job bringing insecticide from Italy to France. Unbeknownst to the bumbling duo, they are really smuggling guns. A group of equally inept mobsters try to steal the guns to no avail.
Preston McLaurin from The Sun News said the movie "might be a loose rambling film, but it never lets down the comedy or the pace it sets in the beginning, and it also "lumps its whole cast into a likable bunch and even gets some boyish charm out of Hall and Spencer".[7] Richard Labonté of The Ottawa Citizen wrote in his review that the film reminded him of The Three Stooges, in that the virtue of the film is that "though the humor is rooted in violence, it's a cartoon violence in which nothing suffers". He was quick to point out that "much of the action consists of heads being hit by balled fists, bodies being tossed through panes of glass, inanimate objects – doors, hammers, beds, bottles, – rendering animate objects – people – inanimate".[8]
In her review for the Los Angeles Times, Linda Gross said that director Giuliano Carnimeo "is very adept at slapstick and at action and demolition sequences, but unfortunately, screenwriter Tulio Demicheli doesn't give him very much to work with". She complained that "every car crash, every joke, every encounter with a woman is milked beyond the limits of entertainment, and the story line is fairly predictably too". She did note that Spencer and Hall "work well together" and Karen Blake is "amusing".[9]