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Detective School Dropouts

Detective School Dropouts

Movie · 1986 · 15 people

Made in 1986 as a co-production between the United States and Italy under The Cannon Group, Detective School Dropouts is a comedy, occasionally described as an action comedy. It reached Italian audiences as Asilo di polizia, French ones as Attention privés ! and German ones as Die Klugscheißer, and Private Defectives is another alternative title. The English-language picture runs 95 minutes.

Its hero is a young devotee of detective novels who enrols for private-investigator training. His instructor, however, treats the naive recruit as a tool for his own ends and pulls him into a quarrel among three cheese-making families. Travelling on stolen passports, the two shadow one family member as far as Italy, and when that man is poisoned they find themselves suspected of murder. David Landsberg and Lorin Dreyfuss, who also wrote the screenplay, share the leading roles. The supporting players include Valeria Golino, Christian De Sica, George Eastman, Giancarlo Prete, Mario Brega, Rik Battaglia, Alberto Farnese, Ennio Antonelli, Adriana Giuffrè, John Karlsen and Franco Angrisano.

Filippo Ottoni directed. Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus produced, and George S. Clinton composed the music.

DirectorFilippo Ottoni
Production companyThe Cannon Group

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Cast

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George Eastman George Eastman Actor · died at 83 Bruno Falcone Giancarlo Prete Giancarlo Prete Actor · died at 58 Valeria Golino David Landsberg Lorin Dreyfuss Christian De Sica Mario Brega Rik Battaglia Alberto Farnese Ennio Antonelli Adriana Giuffrè Arlene Golonka John Karlsen Franco Angrisano Mickey Knox

Titles sharing this cast

Through different eyes

Action & Thriller Fan Puts pace, tension and set pieces first; little patience for slow drama.

It may sometimes get called an action comedy, but the weight is clearly on the comedy. Stolen passports, a pursuit all the way to Italy and a murder accusation are all there, and a far more tense adventure could have come out of them. Anyone after a high-speed chase may be a little let down. If you want a light, undemanding eighties comedy, though, the 95 minutes pass easily.

Family Viewer Asks whether the whole household can watch it; cares about humour and heart.

A feud between cheese-making families, a naive would-be detective and ending up a murder suspect by mistake: on paper, a story a family can laugh at together. Still, a poisoning and a murder accusation are part of it, so it may not quite suit the youngest. It is a better fit for children of middle-school and high-school age. Grown-ups who like light eighties comedies may enjoy it too.

Cinephile Looks at script, editing and directing choices; keeps a distance from formula films.

Made under The Cannon Group with Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus producing, the film looks like a textbook example of the international co-production comedies of the eighties. The American-Italian partnership adds names such as Valeria Golino and Christian De Sica to the cast, but in my view the hybrid set-up blurs the film's identity rather than sharpening it. David Landsberg and Lorin Dreyfuss, who also wrote the script, rely on the naive-pupil-and-scheming-mentor template, a classic comic-duo formula the film makes little effort to take anywhere new. Filippo Ottoni's direction does the job but leaves no mark. A curiosity for fans of the genre and the period; nothing more.

These are not reader reviews: they are short editorial takes written from different viewer perspectives with AI assistance. Reader reviews are below.

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