Banana Joe is a 1982 Italian comedy film starring Bud Spencer.
Plot
Banana Joe is a brawny yet friendly man who lives in a small rainforest village in the island of Amantido. He is a father figure for the numerous local children, and makes a living by regularly bartering bananas for goods needed by the Amantido community. One day, the henchmen of a local gangster boss named Torsillo come ashore in Amantido to take over the local production and exploit the indigenous population through the construction of a banana processing plant. Joe evicts the goons, who promptly return to their boss.
Torsillo finds out that Joe is trading bananas without a license, and makes arrangement with the local police to have him arrested for that. Upon his next delivery, Joe is apprehended by the police and his boat is impounded, until he can produce proper documents. Joe is entirely new to city life and only marginally literate, and he falls easily prey to a con man named Manuel, while also getting infatuated with Dorianne, an attractive singer at a night club also owned by Torsillo.
Joe struggles with the bureaucracy and he eventually enlist in the Army in order to reconstruct his paper trail with the government. His sluggish attitude however drives his drill sergeant to despair, Joe deserts and tries to just grab the desired trading license, causing a commotion and ending up again in prison. Here he re-encounters Manuel, and he is about to exact his vengeance for the previous scam, but the trickster has actually managed to get Joe the much-needed license. In the meantime, however, Torsillo has begun the construction of the banana plant in Amantido.
Joe and Manuel break out of prison and Joe proceeds to thrash Torsillo's thugs and their new developments. The police also arrives, but not to arrest Joe. Instead they've been looking for Manuel, who has received a presidential pardon in return for help in finally conceiving a boy. Torsillo is instead discovered to be a wanted criminal under false name, and gets arrested Dorianne decides to stay with Joe in Amantido, where she opens a school. Joe also attends it with the children, finally convinced of the need to be literate, and returns in other respects to his normal life.
Cast
Bud Spencer: Banana Joe
Marina Langner: Dorianne
Mario Scarpetta: Manuel
Gianfranco Barra: Torsillo
Enzo Garinei: Eng. Moreno
Gunther Philipp: the Tailor
Giorgio Bracardi: Sergeant Josè Felipe Maria Martiño
Nello Pazzafini: Torsillo's truck driver
Nazzareno Zamperla: Hitman (uncredited)
Production
The script to this movie was written by Bud Spencer himself, under his civilian name Carlo Pedersoli. Parts of the movie were filmed in Cartagena, Colombia, and it included extras from Cartagena.