In 1951, veteran comedy creator Fabrizi had directed a successful beach farce centering on the Passaguai family.In this one the father is no longer at his bra company but is looking for an opportunity and follows up a newspaper ad.To impress the businessmen he is courting, he borrows the apartment of his retired actor neighbor (a flamboyant performance by character actor Luigi Pavese who was the irate beach patron in the first film, he does exasperation rather well and his hammy reenactments of Shakespeare scenes reminded me a bit of US supporting player Akan Mowbray.)
Little does Passaguai know that the men he is trying to impress are just as phony as he is, and there is an equally disreputable woman with them who pretends to be a countess.This is one of those comedies where pretty much everyone is pretending to be someone they are not, and the finale in Passaguai's new office complex offers a running gag in which one character after the other puts on a fake nose brought by the actor so they can hide their identities.
Sequels are usually not quite as good as the originals and this one lacks some of the more visual humor that the beach setup of the first film provided, but otherwise it is rather clever and amusing.
By the way cameraman Mario Bava, famous for his later horror thrillers, gets in some nice touches toward the end during a shadowy dream sequence where the Fabrizi character has a nightmare about being imprisoned for his business irregularities.
