by Terry Snyder
The movie I watched this week was After the Fox starring Peter Sellers. It was directed by Vittorio De Sica and released in 1966. It is the story of a thief who escapes from prison to take care of his mother and sister and winds up attempting to steal a boatload of gold bars under the cover of making a movie.
This film has a great many elements of parody and satire. It is clearly a parody of many spy capers, where the villain turns out to actually be the hero; he may be stealing but it is for the right reasons and in the end, he confesses and sometimes gets off or returns to prison with the attitude that he has done the right thing. In this film, Aldo Vanucci (Sellers) hears that his sister is on the streets and, assuming the worst, breaks out of prison to save her, only to find out his mother is running a bingo game and his sister is actually trying to be in the movies. Despite his desire to “go straight”, Vanucci is lured back to crime because he thinks the money to be made will help his family.
The satire of this film is the skewering of the behavior of egomaniacal directors, over the top film stars and celebrity crazed fans. De Sica himself has a bit part of a director who thinks the film is all about him and he and his film are literally blown away when the giant fans he is using for a sand storm blast everything away, including Moses, played by director John Huston. When Vanucci comes up with a plan to film a fake movie to cover up the gold heist, he uses a small town’s population to help him by using all the citizens to be in his movie. They are obsessed with the idea of a famous director and movie stars in their little town and even the police chief overlooks a needed permit when Vanucci gives him a part saying “Good Morning”.
But the funniest part of this movie, to me, was Victor Mature. He played a parody of himself to perfection. As an aging actor named Tony Powell, who still sees himself as young, he and his agent (played by Martin Balsam) are bamboozled into appearing in this movie by Vanucci, now presenting himself as a neo-realist director (another parody of De Sica) Federico Fabrizi. Fabrizi promises Powell he will be the love interest of his young sister, boosting Powell’s vanity and his youthful image of himself. He also will get to wear a trench coat, something that Mature was known for.
At the end of the film, Vanucci is exposed for what he is and is on trial for attempting to steal the gold. The film he made is shown in court. It is very choppy, cuts in and out of scenes and makes no sense at all. In a scathing mockery of film critics, one who is in the courtroom jumps up and proclaims this film as the greatest of all time and is dragged screaming its praises from the courtroom.
This movie received a terrible review in the New York Times when it came out. At one point it said, “And where was Mr. de Sica while all this was going on? Evidently he had suspended his usual taste and was going along with it. His way with Italian actors in creating a rich comic style is nowhere evident in the work of Mr. Sellers and it only flickers in some of the small Italian roles.” I haven’t found anywhere what De Sica was thinking about when he made this movie, but in my opinion, he was lambasting Hollywood, actors, directors, and the cult of celebrity in the world. De Sica’s earlier neo-realist works were dark, intense and serious. Even the light, romantic comedies he made in Italy were highly praised and won foreign film awards. But I think After the Fox was De Sica’s way of parodying the way movies have changed and what currently was considered popular.
I would highly recommend watching this movie, it is one of the funniest ones I have seen in this class so far.
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