Customer Reviews

After the Fox [VHS]

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

There is so much to brag about in this movie it is hard to know where to start.

First, Peter Sellers, probably the most talented film comedian of his generation, gives a bravura performance as a professional crook, Aldo Venucci, trying to make one last big score, The Gold of Cairo. His performance is so nuanced, hysterical (with the Italian accent) and real, that he really IS the movie. I say that not to disparage the rest of the cast, who are all wonderful.

Second, the totally whacky script by Neil Simon is original, and so full of funny lines that come at you so fast, that you are in serious danger of your sides splitting if you don't pause the video in places!!!

Victor Mature, playing an over the hill actor who doesn't think he is, and Marty Balsam, his suspicious and totally exasperated agent, who tries to convince him that he is not as young as he thinks, are a terrific team and have their own comic chemistry.

Seller's wife at the time, Britt Eckland, plays Sellers' sister, a star struck young woman who dreams of being an actress. She is very good in her part.

Akim Tamiroff, whose character stole the Gold of Cairo originally, adds a touch of Middle Eastern flavor and mystery to the movie. (Men ... dig his sister. What a babe!)

There are some nicely placed barbs at the movies of Antonioni,
(there is one scene where they just chase each other, Eckland and Mature). When the agent (Balsam) asks the meaning of the whole thing,the director, Sellers, replies "No matter how fast you run, you can't run away from yourself." The Mature character throws a kiss at him and responds, "Brilliant!" If you've seen some Antonioni movies, you'll understand the satire.

It is impossible to pick out one best scene, but one of my favorites is when Mature, Balsam, and Sellers meet in his hotel room to discuss to proposed movie, and Sellers receives a phone call. "Oh hello Sophia. My darling I told you there is no part in my new picture for you ... Sophia please, you are getting hysterical ..." At this point, he hands the phone to Marty Balsam and asks him to calm her down. He gets on the phone, and the next shot is in a phone booth, where one of Sellers' cohorts is on the phone. When Balsam, comes on he hurriedly hangs up. Well, you have to see it. But the whole scene is hilarious.

If you are a Peter Sellers fan, love great comedy, you must have this film. I've viewed it countless times and it just gets funnier and funnier.

This is one of the best movies that I have ever seen. I am a fan of 1960's style comedies. I would rate this as superior to Peter Seller's work in the Pink Panther series.

Every aspect of this movie is good. This film had a most unusual co-writing team: Neil Simon, one of America's foremost playwrights and Cesare Zavattini, a major Italian comic screenwriter. Also note that Peter Sellers sings the title song, "After the Fox," written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, along with the 1960's rock group The Hollies. Vittorio De Sica, the film's director, is better known as one of the pioneers of Italian Neorealist filmmaking.

Peter Sellers is at his best as an ingenius thief who is constantly in and out of jail, who undertakes a job to smuggle stolen gold in order to earn enough money to provide for his Mother and Sister.

The supporting cast was superb. From the aging famous actor, to the Fox's sister, the Fox's two henchmen, the Fox's mother, the town mayor, the chief of police, the famous actor's agent. Everyone was well selected.

All scenes were EXTREMELY memorable & HILARIOUSLY funny: the italian restaurant scene where Sellers talks to a beautiful woman with a man's voice, the 1st prison escape scene where Sellers tricks the guards, the 2nd escape scene where Sellers tricks the guards, the interpol scene where they go through the list of suspected criminals (most of whom are at retirement age), the scene where he ad libs fake movie scenes to keep people busy while waiting for the gold shipment to arrive (And now you are sitting...but not talking to each other...no talking!...and ACTION!)

The film is also noted for it's catchphrases: "Good Morning!" will forever bring a smile to your face.

For me there was also a personal connection: I felt like I was walking the streets of Italy in the 1960's (roughly a little after the time that my Grandparents had emigrated from Italy to Canada)

So scream the peasant housewives of Savalio when they see Peter Sellers aka Federico Fabrizi aka Aldo Vanucci and his goons setting up their tripod to shoot close-ups of Britt Ekland, Aldo's star-struck sister Gina.

The plan? To be able to land a stolen shipment of gold and get it unloaded on an Italian beachfront. And what better way to do this than convince an entire town that they are going to be extras in your movie about a shipment of gold? Master thief Sellers hatches the plan while watching an old Tony Powell (Victor Mature) movie while in disguise as a cavalliere--he has to be in disguise, since his daring prison break at the picture's outset. So of the course, the logical step is to get a movie star in the ersatz picture, one like Tony Powell, who is such a has-been that he'll be in anything that allows him to flash his ivories and wear his trademark trenchcoat. Comedic situations abound as the "filming" progresses.

Sellers does a great job of pretending to be a dubbed-in Italian actor, but the real standout is Victor Mature, throwing caution to the wind and his reputation out the window as he sinks his formidable teeth into the role of the aging matinee idol. Intent on one more leading man role, now in a new wave foreign film, he constantly bucks the better advice of his agent, the exasperated Martin Balsam.

It seems like I've seen this movie all my life; the whole family can recite scenes verbatim. Mark my words; if you see this movie, the same will happen to yours!

Directed by Vittorio De Sica Peter Sellers portrays the elusive Italian criminal "The Fox" who concocts an outrageous heist with an unknowing over-the-hill Hollywood hunk Tony Powell played brilliantly by Victor Mature to hijack gold bullion into a little Italian seaside villa. Britt Ekland is Sellers' sister Gina Romantica an unwitting newcomer female lead to unwitting lead Tony Powell. Martin Balsam is excellent as Tony Powell's suspicious manager. This is one of Peter Sellers' best movies and perhaps his funniest. This very funny film has an undercurrent that pokes fun at internationally produced films as the glory days of Hollywood were in their death throes and the audiences that will pay to see anything on the silver screen. Thus, we see a director who is not really a director and a Hollywood star that really can't act. But who really cares? Life itself can sometimes be one big farce and I that is the real success of this movie and why it is so funny. Burt Bacharach outdid himself with his intuitive and humorous score for this movie. This is one of the most underrated comedies of all time.

I am only 22 years old. My father introduced me to Seller's comedies and after his passing away, i have now begun to realize why he loved his movies so much. This movie is simply nothing but one hilarious scene after another (i've seen it more than 5 times), not to mention the music is fabulous and goes along perfectly with every scene. Seller's girlfriend is quite a hottie and I always can remember the first scene when she bears it all for the gold. Quite a body she's got under that Burqa.

Sellers was really one of the best comedians in English cinema. This isn't slapstick like Jerry Lewis folks, but a kind of unique comedy that takes a little time to come into your senses. I have seen most of Seller's movies and i love them all. thank you to such a great star who's no longer with us.

This is a classic Peter sellers film. Personally, I think it's the best of all his movies. Every time you watch it you see or hear something new.

When he cries out in anguish "Arrgh...If only I could steal enough to become an honest man!"

When he promises his crying mother that he will take care of her and buy her a new house with shiny pots and pans, and she replies, sobbing..."I don't want pots and pans...I want Grandchildren"

The aging Victor Mature exclaiming indignantly, "I still have the pupils of a young boy"

Some of the lines and background scenes you catch the first time...Some you won't catch until the 4th time you watch it.

The music to this film is by Burt Bacharach and is filled with tunes that stay with you long after the movie is done. The landing of the gold and the Italian Police are just 2 of the tunes that set the stage for the action.

Buy it, make some popcorn, and sit down to a funny movie you can watch over and over again. And watch for a cameo by Vittorio Di Sica.

Read all the other reviewers - they've got it right.
Five stars. My 12-year old daughter and I know every line ("and I hold you responsible for the chicken!") and are always dancing around the house to the music. We've had an old Japanese VHS copy, with Japanese subtitles (often wrong, by the way, but quite funny) and were afraid we'd wear it out after nine years so ordered the DVD.

Must say, the sound quality is not that great - a lot flatter than the VHS, except for the Movie Trailer which has all the brassiness of the analogue version.
One great thing for us watching it on wide-screen was seeing all the stuff going on left and right of the action you see on VHS.
My wife still can't understand why we like this movie so much, but English is not her native language and this movie is very verbal.

Other good features on the disk are the language selections. You can watch it in French, Spanish or English (if you buy the US Amazon edition) and choose from French, Spanish or English subtitles. Don't know why there's no Italian - or Japanese for that matter, but that's often the way with DVDs.

Highly recommended.

This is one of the funniest movies ever made. Starring Peter Sellers and a wonderful supporting cast led by Victor Mature and Martin Balsam, with a score by Burt Bacharach, and a script by Neal Simon, this is a comedy to measure other comedies by. Every scene is memorable. You'll be quoting dialogue forever. I don't know why this film is overlooked by the experts, even in compiling Peter Sellers' best work, but, some people don't get it and never will. You will never regret seeing this film, and I don't know too many people who have been able to resist seeing it more than once. You will purchase this film. You will enjoy it again and again. You will praise it to everyone you know who has a sense of humor. Trust me, I have a Ph.D. and it's not in education.

The first time I saw this riotious movie was at The RKO Theatre in Washington D.C. the first weekend it appeared. It made me laugh then and still makes me laugh some forty years later. It's Peter Sellers portraying a master thief and mommas boy in a script penned by Neil Simon, directed by one of the princes of Italian cinema, Vittorio DeSica, shot in Rome and the Amalfi Coast. We see Sellers, (The Fox!) concoct a scheme to break out of prison to comfort his mother and try and control his sister (played by Mrs. Sellers,Britt Ecklund) while on the outside The Fox hatchs a plan to steal the gold of Cairo (lots of gold bricks). Many great Italian character actors and a very funny matinee idol, Victor Mature as "Tony Powell", a name repeated a hundred time for comic effect. It's $11.90 plus shipping, that's about what you would pay to see "Duece Bigelow" at your movie house and this is many times funnier-I'm guessing.

I remember first discovering this film on a friend's video by accident and so i watched it...and by the end of the week i'd watched it about 5 or 6 times! i couldn't put the film away... just had to keep on seeing it! i've been trying for years to get a copy on video - now i've found it and shall order it post haste! victor mature was perfect throughout ..but Peter Sellers (one of my all time faves - especially thanks to the Goon show!!) excelled himself! I'll never forget the way he impersonated a yank at the party he crashed! wah wah wah !!! so true!! would have given it 6stars but amazon are were a little short!!!