Expert: Barbara L. Baker - 9/15/2006

Question
Thanks - No I can't remember any other details - it might have been France rather than Italy - all of the "gang" were male - it was foreign made film Not for TV - It was a farce
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Followup To

Question -
From time to time in the last several years I keep remembering a movie I saw perhaps 15-20 years ago.  At the time it made me laugh to the point of discomfort.  I would love to see it again but I don't know the title nor any of the actors or the director etc.. I do
remember enough of the story line that I am hoping that you might be able to identify it for me.

This is all vague, but as I remember it, the setting is a small medieval hill town in Italy. A bunch of con men who are either trying to hide from the law or are planning a heist end up in this quaint town and pretend they are making a movie as their cover.  

They don’t know the first thing about cinematography, but none-the-less they proceed to make a film using many of the local town folks, who are quite excited by the prospect of being involved.  I am pretty fuzzy beyond that but do remember that toward the end I believe they are arrested and tried and there defense attorney shows their movie in an attempt to establish them as legit filmmakers rather than the con men that they actually are.   Their film is god awful amateurism.  Every mistake in the book is made including numerous head shots taken with wide angle lenses from 12 inches away.  At any rate the film community finds it totally cutting edge and lauds it with praise and I believe as a result that are not convicted.

Ring any bells?


Answer -
JB, I've been trying to locate this film without a lot of success.  This exact plot doesn't ring any bells with me, although it sounds slightly similar to the film "The Last Shot."  But that film was made recently, and is set in the U.S. (and the FBI sets up a fake movie as a sting).  There are some other films with films-within-a-film that include gangsters or criminals, but none that I've located yet that are set in Italy, and released (or shown) at least 15-20 years ago.

So I'm frustrated and need to ask if you have any additional information at all on this film.  For example, did you see it in a theatre or on TV?  Could it be a made-for-TV movie?  Is it a U.S. or foreign production?  Can you recall anything else about the plot events or the specific characters (e.g were they young, old, all male, etc.)?  Any other information might be the clue to help me track down this title for you.

Answer
JB--I think the film you are looking for is "After the Fox" also called "Caccia alla volpe" in Italian.  It was made in 1966, which is why it took awhile to locate (since you said you saw it 15-20 years ago).

"After the Fox" is a comedy-farce by the great Italian neo-realist filmmaker Vittoria de Sica, from a screenplay written by Blake Edwards.  The Fox, Aldo Vanucci (played by Peter Sellers) escapes from an Italian prison, meets up with his gang, and makes plans to retrieve the "gold of Cairo" at an unsuspecting Italian costal village.  He persuades the whole population that he is making a movie, calling himself by a different name that evokes the Italian filmmaker Fredrico Fellini (de Sica's joke).  He shoots footage with an aging star (Victor Mature), his younger sister (Britt Eklund), and the villagers in what some commentors on the Internet Movie Data Based call a parody of neo-realist film making (and others a satire on the avant garde).  He winds up in court where there is a showing of his awful black and white footage, which is promptly declared as a masterpiece by a film critic.  

Despite seeing a lot of Peter Sellers films, I seem to have missed this one growing up.  Because it received more positive than negative commentary from various reviewers, and sounded pretty funny, I promptly ordered a copy from Amazon.com, where it is available in both VHS and DVD formats.