After the Fox

Fang ræven (1966) [DVD] After the Fox

Directed by Vittorio De Sica, AFTER THE FOX is collaboration between highly regarded American playwright Neil Simon and celebrated Italian screenwriter Cesare Zavattini on Simon's first screenplay. The film stars Peter Sellers as Aldo Vanucci, a blundering master thief. Vanucci contentedly whiles away his time in jail until he hears that his sister has become a prostitute. Vanucci escapes through a series of silly disguises, and finds his sister on the street picking up an older man. Vanucci attacks the man, only to find that his sister is in the midst of filming a dramatic "cinema verite" scene. Inspired, Vanucci disguises himself as a New Wave director named Federico Fabrizi, and begins pre-producing a "film" in which three million dollars in gold bullion will be smuggled into Italy. With the support of the criminal Okra (Akim Tamiroff), Vanucci hires ageing movie star Tony Powell (Victor Mature) for the lead role, and steals the necessary film equipment from a famous Italian director, played by De Sica himself. Victor Mature's performance is outstanding as he lampoons his own big screen persona from the 1940s, while the rest of the film scathingly satires art films, hoity-toity directors, and the Italian persona.