O Fino da Vigarice

"Do you know how many good kisser are starving in Italy?" That's just one of the excellent lines from this underrated movie. The credits alone sound like the plot for a waco 60s jet-set movie: Vittorio De Sica directing a Neil Simon script? You've got to be kidding. True, the film sags and lags at parts, but between Peter Sellers, Victor Mature (truly awesome here), and the mouth-wateringly hummana-hummana Brit Ekland, the movie has enough going for it that it remains a favorite. And that incredible Burt Bacharach score! I swear that if you're depressed and listen to this music (available on CD as I write this), you'll be cured for life!

This much forgotten film has kept me in stitches for years. My brother and I quoted lines from it for years on appropriate occasions. What a surprise to find that Victor Mature was very funny. You have to see it to believe it.

In this clever little film Neil Simon crafted one of his greatest screenplays and the actors translated it into one of the most humorous off-beat comedies of the 60's. It is hilarious even by Coen brother and Zucker brother standards.

Essentially this film is a study in human ego:

Aldo Vanucci (Peter Sellers) wants to be seen as the great master thief.

His sister (Britt Ekland) wants to be a film actress (pronounced "film akdress")

Aldo's mother wants to be the mother of famous children ("my son the director" "My daughter the akdress")

The Agent (Martin Balsam) is proud that he can see through everybody--save himself.

Tony Powell, famous film star, (Victor Mature) is an aging actor that won't accept that he's an aging actor. He wants to play young man roles even though he is in his 60's.

The Police chief wants to say "Gooda Morning" in the movie so he'll get his "Warhol allotment."

The whole town of Savalio wants: "To be inna movie."

This film is a scream. If you watch this and don't simply crack up, its obvious that farce is not your fare. It's okay--farcical humor isn't for everyone. CAVEAT: If you like this check out "The Wrong Box."

At any rate, the finale of this film (I won't give it away) surely made Fellini blush--he is so well lampooned by Simon. This film hands out the ultimate insult to the avant guard film crowd of the 60's. It has the courage to insinuate: "We don't get your films and that doesn't make you smarter than us!"

While certainly not one of his greatest works, Peter Sellers nonetheless shines as Aldo Vanucci, aka "The Fox". He underplays the role in his early scenes, as the scheming criminal, but pulls out all the stops when the character hits upon the idea to masquerade as "Fredrico Fabrizi" the great neo-realist. Much like the scheme inspires Vanucci, the disguise inspires Sellers, and his wildly inventive genius kicks into high gear.

Equally funny is Victor Mature as aging, past-his-prime movie idol Tony Powell. It's a well-written part (by Neil Simon), but Mature really brings him to life, and rather than merely making him a buffoon, which would have been easy to do, he gives him a quality of sympathy; deep down, despite all his posturing and pompousness, Powell probably knows he's on the decline.

All-in-all, a very funny film, with a truly inspired Sellers performance, even if it's not his best. Even a little really good Sellers goes a long way. He's sadly missed.

As a comedy for an American audience, After the Fox is a pleasant diversion, especially the classic performance by Victor Mature as the aging Hollywood hunk who can't accept reality. But for any person who has spent any time in Italy--whether in an urban center such as Rome or the Italian equivalent of Mayberry--this movie is hilarious. The writers and performers have captured the essence of the Italian personality as well as the spirit of the abrasive American personality. Since this film was shot entirely on location, we get a real sense of Italy as a place. Peter Sellers posing as the self-important filmmaker Federico Fabrizi with Fellini black-rimmed glasses and all gives an excellent performance. I love this movie.

This is actually my favorite Peter Sellers film, and my favorite Neil Simon script, though I suppose I'm in the minority there. I just love it to pieces, though, and re-watch it at least once a year. Sellers as thief in prison, as devoted son and stern brother, as American tourist, and especially as a Felliniesque film director--it's just terrific stuff, he is so pricelessly funny, and yet there is somehow a little less of him and more of a script than there is in the Blake Edwards films, which is why I think I like it better. And I do think Victor Mature is marvelous in it too, with a touching wistfulness underneath all the vain posturing. Ditto the chief of police. The sets are fabulous too, and so is the Bacharach music, much of it deliciously cheerfully Italianate but also the wonderfully catchy main title sung by Sellers himself with the Hollies (that would be Graham Nash later of Crosby, Stills and Nash).

There are certain things about the film that remind me of The Producers, though the comedy style is not quite the same. But anyway, not to be missed!