Dan Scerpella Since so many folks have laid out the plot I will skip that.My first viewing of this was in grade school in the 60's and it was the first Sellers film I recall seeing. This perspective gave me the advantage of not having any basis for comparison and thus not having any expectations going in. (Since then I have seen the film about a dozen times.)To me this compares favorably to "A Shot in the Dark" because the plot was smart, the characters were believable, and it was not slapstick as were the Pink Panther films that became Seller's trademark. Contrary to what some have said I found Sellers and Eklund very believable as Italians, and the fact it was filmed on location with a largely Italian cast by an Italian director gives it a look and feel that we don't see with American films, even back then.If one has Italian relations as I do, the humor was very believable as well. But for me the part most well portrayed is how normal people as well as the glitterati become star struck by movies and fame, and this film's self knowledge of the addictive appeal of being on the silver screen was what made the film for me. The entire premise for the film is Vannucci's understanding of this, that people would drop their guard and behave in a very silly way for a shot at immortalization on film. Even the films hilarious penultimate scene hammers movie critics unmercifully.Sellers was brilliant and as many have repeated, Victor Mature was brilliant as well as a good sport for taking on a role which made fun of his own persona. There simply are no weak performances here even from the secondary characters.This is a movie I plan to buy for my DVD collection.

ShadeGrenade 'After The Fox' probably looks funnier now than when it was first released in 1966. Peter Sellers plays 'Aldo Vanucci', Italy's top criminal mastermind - known as 'The Fox' - and also a master of disguise. When his cronies visit him in jail, he gives them food and magazines. Hearing that his sister Gina ( Britt Ekland, Sellers' wife at the time ) is walking the streets of Rome, he is furious and escapes by switching places with a psychiatrist. It turns out Gina is only making a movie. He wants her to go back to school, but she is determined to become a movie star. She has changed her surname to the more exotic sounding 'Romantica'. A daring bullion robbery has been pulled off in Cairo, and Aldo must help the thieves get the gold into Italy. He decides to trick the townspeople of Sevalio into thinking they are taking part in a movie, and to this end manages to secure the services of fading Hollywood matinée idol 'Tony Powell' ( Victor Mature )...At times, 'Fox' feels like an Italian version of one of Sellers' earlier British comedies, such as 'Two Way Stretch' and 'The Wrong Arm Of The Law'. Aldo shares many similarities to 'Dodger Lane' and 'Pearly Gates'. Neil Simon's script is not bad - though not among his better efforts - but it needed a director of the calibre of Blake Edwards to make it work. Instead we have Vittorio De Sica, and his heart is just not in it. As 'Vanucci', Sellers is okay, but its when he gets to impersonate eccentric director 'Frederico Fabrizi' ( pointing to his head, he says to Tony: "In here is my script!" ) that the film really starts to becomes funny, with some amusing jibes at the expense of the neo-realism school of cinema ( of which De Sica was a leading exponent ). Giving Sellers competition in the comedy department is Mature, with a highly amusing self parody as a film star who refuses to admit he is over the hill. When he brags to his agent 'Harry' that he is a youthful forty, the man replies: "But your son is thirty-five!". Another asset is the bouncy Burt Bacharach soundtrack. The catchy theme song was performed by Sellers ( as 'Vanucci' ) and 'The Hollies'. 'Fox' was not a big commercial success, but now seems a decent way to kill 90 minutes, even if it does end with a somewhat uninspired car chase.The best moment comes in the final scene. Vanucci is on trial ( along with the townspeople of Sevalio ). The film is screened to the jury. It is disjointed, jumpy, with jerky camera work ( just like every major film on release these days ). When it is over, everyone who took part looks embarrassed. A wild-eyed critic, however, proclaims it a masterpiece!

movie-enthusiast When I wrote my first review of this film, I was the only reviewer. I wrote it in the hope that it would be "rediscovered" by Peter Sellers fans especially. Now there are 32 reviews! I am glad that so many people are enjoying this film. Many of the other reviews are excellent and I cannot improve on them so I want to say some different things.If you had seen Victor Mature in other films, none were comedies. He was in Biblical epics; Samson and Delilah, Demetrius and the Gladiators, The Robe, and The Egyptian. He was Tumak in One Million B.C.(1940) and Doc Holliday in My Darling Clementine. He's played a romantic lead, a gangster, a cowboy, a caveman, a secret agent, and a cop. However; when he is cast in a comedy as an ageing matinée idol, the theatrical impact is tremendous. The fact that he fully embraces the part makes it the slam-dunk winner of the most perfectly casted part of all time! (His sense of humor off the screen was well known in Southern California: "I'm not an actor and I have 64 films to prove it.") To contradict his self-deprecating remarks, in this film Mature proves that he can act.Vittorio De Sica must be credited with bringing this Neil Simon comedy to life with his talented direction. De Sica's experience making comedies went back to when he was a young man and still an actor. He and his wife, Giuditta Rissone, along with Sergio Tofano, formed an acting company in 1933 which performed mostly light comedies. In "After the Fox", De Sica had a field day poking fun at Federico Fellini and Ingmar Bergman. There is one more thing of note. He was notorious for gambling. This caused him to work on some films that he wouldn't have otherwise. Sometimes he projected his own fantasies into his films -- The Gold of Cairo(?). In any case, I'm sure he won his bet on this film.By the way, does the reader know that Gina Romantica (Britt Ekland) was Mrs. Peter Sellers during the time when this film was made.

funkyfry This is one of those movies that, even though it's entertaining, I have to assume the main reason it was made was simply the availability of these particular stars in this particular place. Like the original "Ocean's Eleven" which was basically made because Sinatra and the "rat pack" were available in Las Vegas on particular dates, this film feels basically like an extended Italian vacation for Peter Sellers, his then-wife Britt Ekland, and graying American movie star Victor Mature (who essentially makes fun of himself in the film). There's very little of consequence in the film, and it's all very predictable plot-wise, but Sellers manages to salvage more than one scene with his zany improvisations on Neil Simon's funny story.Sellers plays an Italian criminal mastermind who frees himself from prison and sets about importing stolen Egyptian gold by impersonating a new-wave movie director. "If only I could steal enough money to become an honest man," he laments as he frets about his movie-obsessed sister, played by Ekland.There are just a handful of really memorable scenes here that basically make the movie, and all but one (with Ekland unknowingly smearing Mature's hair dye all over her face) primarily involve Sellers. First Sellers bursts into Mature's hotel suite in the gregarious manner of an Italian film magnate, kissing Mature on both cheeks like old friends and thoroughly annoying the agent played by Martin Balsam. In another, Sellers convinces the local constable Lando Buzzanca to let them operate without a permit, and ends up with the guy eating out of his hand ("good morning!") while he tears his office apart.At times when Sellers is playing the director, you get a strong feeling that he's off the script and he's purposely skewering particular directors. It's all a bit weird, because the contrived film Sellers is making inside the film doesn't feel all that much more arbitrary or manufactured than the one we're actually watching.