L'imperatore di Capri

The "Prince of Laughter" plays the "Emperor of Capri" ... This film - as many others of Totò's - presents linguistic and dialectal difficulties, to which today's cultural differences must be added, due to the years that have gone by; anyway, whenever I happen to watch this film I cannot help but observe what a precursor of times Totò was. We are talking of 1949 year, just a few years since WWII ended, and already in the wake of the Cold War; the culture and the customs of those times were what they were, and yet our Totò did cut off all the commonplaces, and dissected everything that seemed formally respectable in the society of the time. Italy was far from the post-war revival that would lead to the following 'economic boom' of the 1960s. The country was largely underdeveloped and wide pockets of illiteracy persisted. Yet, in spite of all this, it emerges the very modern humor of the "Prince of Laughter". A fierce satire of socialite costumes, and his striking way of cracking jokes make of this one an always present-day kind of film. I'd just like trying to translate for you one of the typically unheard-of jokes in this movie: when everyone is convinced that poor DeFazio - who knows nothing about it - is covertly the "Bei of Agapur", they turn to him with deference using the title of "Your Highness ..."; not understanding the reason behind it, poor DeFazio answers naively: " Mine? ... 5 feet and 4 inches ... This looks kinda easy verbal slip-up to think of, these days, but we're talking about the year 1949! ... Quite a few American film makers say they got some of their inspiration from the Italian "Neo Realismo" ... I'm sure they'd have got no lesser inspiration from Totò's filmography ... provided studying some Italian first ... ;=))

PS. Some of the characters of this film will be taken up and developed by Totò in another beautiful film of his: Totò a colori (Totò in color, 1952); in which social satire becomes fierce, disrespectful, and even blatant. Of course, being the jokes in part already known, one might think they are less effective, but the art of the comedian is such that you cannot avoid laughing, again and again, and each time it's like one has never heard them before.

I appreciate that while other comedians of the time were having good success with being buffoons, Toto's character was quite different. His character, although not the smartest, was not your standard idiot. When difficult situations arose, his character could use his brain and some good luck to get out of it.

This is a fun movie, although at times it can be a little annoying. There are some fun, funny scenes, and a couple that could have been left out. Some scenes, although not laugh out loud funny, are constant smile inducing, such as the scene where people calling him by his correct name incorrectly think that they're in on a secret.

Professional gold digger Yvonne Sanson is hypnotized by her boyfriend into thinking that hotel waiter Totò is an immensely wealthy Indian potentate. She makes a date to meet him on Capri, where he accidentally steals the real Indian's luggage -- including a snake -- and is believed by the degenerate but Code-compliant rich of the island into believing he is the.... well you get it. Of course, Totò is married, with a nasty mother-in-law and even nastier juvenile brother-in-law.

Totò indulges in a lot of eye-rolling, and the movie as a whole is no more than a vehicle for him and his fans. Happily, I am one.