Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Wonderful Slapstick Comedy, September 16, 2004
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.
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
100% Good, March 29, 2001
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)
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"Hey, They're Making a Movie!", March 11, 2002
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!
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