Buddy Buddy

Theatrical release poster by John Solie

***Buddy Buddy*** is a 1981 American comedy film based on Francis Veber's play *Le contrat* and Édouard Molinaro's film *L'emmerdeur*. It was the final film directed and written by Billy Wilder.

## Plot

To earn his long-awaited retirement, hitman Trabucco eliminates several witnesses against the mob. On his way to his last assignment, Rudy "Disco" Gambola, who is about to testify before a jury at the court of Riverside, California, he encounters Victor Clooney, an emotionally disturbed television censor, who is trying to reconcile with his estranged wife Celia. Trabucco takes a room in the Ramona Hotel in Riverside, across the street from the courthouse where Gambola is to arrive soon. As ill chance would have it, Victor moves into the neighboring room at the same hotel, and after he calls Celia and she turns him down, he tries to kill himself. His clumsy first attempt alerts Trabucco, and fearing the unwelcome attention of the nearby police guarding the courthouse, he decides to accompany Victor in order to quietly eliminate him, but his attempts are repeatedly foiled by inconvenient happenstances.

Trabucco and Victor head to the nearby Institute for Sexual Fulfillment, the clinic where Celia, a researcher for *60 Minutes*, has enlisted because she has become enthralled with the clinic's director, Dr. Zuckerbrot. After Celia spurns him again, they return to the hotel, where Victor attempts to leap off the building after setting himself on fire. While moving to stop him, Trabucco accidentally knocks himself out, and Victor, having a change of heart, brings him back inside and tries to take care of him. However, Zuckerbrot, sent by Celia to have Victor confined in a mental institution, arrives and injects Trabucco, whom he mistakes for Victor, with a tranquilizer. With Gambola's arrival imminent, Trabucco tries to fulfill his contract but is too groggy to make the shot. After seeing him preparing his rifle and learning about Trabucco's true nature, Victor volunteers to take out Gambola in order to help his new "best friend". Victor succeeds, and the two escape the police after Trabucco, posing as a priest, has made sure that Gambola is dead, but he refuses Victor's company and heads off alone.

Months later, Trabucco enjoys his tropical island retreat until he is unexpectedly joined by Victor. Victor explains that he is wanted by the police after blowing up Zuckerbrot's clinic, and Celia has run off with the doctor's female receptionist to become a lesbian couple. Desperate to see the irritating Victor off, Trabucco suggests to his native servant the possibility of reviving the old custom of sacrificing humans in the local volcano.

## Cast

* Jack Lemmon as Victor Clooney
* Walter Matthau as Trabucco
* Paula Prentiss as Celia Clooney
* Klaus Kinski as Dr. Hugo Zuckerbrot
* Dana Elcar as Captain Hubris
* Miles Chapin as Eddie, the Bellhop
* Michael Ensign as Hotel Manager
* Joan Shawlee as Receptionist
* Ben Lessy as Barney Pritzig
* Fil Formicola as Rudy "Disco" Gambola
* C.J. Hunt as Kowalski
* Bette Raya as Mexican Maid
* Ronnie Sperling as Hippie Husband
* Suzie Galler as Pregnant Wife
* John Schubeck as Newscaster
* Ed Begley Jr. as Lieutenant #1
* Frank Farmer as Lieutenant #2
* Tom Kindle as Highway Patrolman #1
* Biff Manard as Highway Patrolman #2
* Myrna Dell as Cashier