'Johnny Stecchino', released in 1991, proved to be the biggest box office
hit in its native country, Italy. The movie stars Robert Benigni, who is
also the co -writer and director of the movie. Robert Begnini plays a
double role in this movie, one as bus driver Dante and his look- alike
gangster Johnny. The movie that runs for 100 minutes is an excellent proof
of Robert Benigni's ability to turn an usually serious topic of Mafia into
The movie is about a jolly bus driver , Dante in Rome . He hasn't
got anything exciting in life, in fact he lives a life of kindhearted
loser. His best friend is one of retarded children he transports from
school to home and back again, Lillo. He also shoplifts bananas with this
friend to discourage him from eating pastries, as he is diabetic. The scene
where he steals bananas shows how Begnini can "squeeze more laughs from a
simple prop, (in this case a banana), than any other comic in modern
movies"(1). At the same time he is tricking the federal government by
acting that he got a spastic hand due to some injury in order to get some
extra benefits .His love life also paints a pathetic picture: he cant get a
single girl in town who is willing to go out with him even those who had
been dumped by their men and would go out with anyone to make their ex-
Life changes for Dante when, in the first scene, he encounters Maria after
coming out of night party who faints as she sees him. Then one afternoon
she visits him at his place and asks him to meet her at her room in an
opulent hotel. After their meeting, he is convinced that she has deeply
fallen in love with him and therefore accepts to come to his villa in
Palermo, Sicily. Here her true identity and motives are revealed to the
audiences though they remain unknown to Dante, throughout the movie. She is
wife of a Mafia leader, Johnny Stechinno or Johnny the tooth pick who
looking exactly like Dante a...