After the Fox
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| After the Fox | |
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| Directed by | Vittorio De Sica |
| Produced by | John Bryan |
| Written by | Neil Simon Cesare Zavattini |
| Starring | Peter Sellers Britt Ekland Lydia Brazzi Paolo Stoppa Victor Mature Tino Buazzelli |
| Music by | Burt Bacharach Piero Piccioni |
| Cinematography | Leonida Barboni |
| Editing by | Russell Lloyd |
| Distributed by | Delgate / Nancy Enterprises United Artists |
| Release date(s) | 1966 |
| Running time | 103 min. |
| Country | Italy / U.K. |
| Language | English / Italian |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Caccia alla volpe (After the Fox) is a 1966 film comedy starring Peter Sellers and directed by Vittorio De Sica. The screenplay, however, is in English, by Neil Simon and De Sica's longtime collaborator, Cesare Zavattini.
Despite this array of talent, the film was poorly received when it was released. It has since gained a cult following for its numerous in-jokes skewering pompous directors (including Cecil B. de Mille, John Huston, Federico Fellini, Michelangelo Antonioni and De Sica himself); vain movie stars; and their starstruck audiences.
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[edit] Plot
The story begins in Cairo with the hijacking of $3 million in gold bullion. The thieves need a way to smuggle the two tons of gold bars into Europe. Only one man is cunning enough to outwit Interpol. He is Aldo Vanucci, also known as The Fox, a master criminal with a talent for disguise. Vanucci poses as an Italian neo-realist director named Federico Fabrizi. He plans to bring the gold ashore in broad daylight as part of a scene in an avant garde film. To give the picture an air of legitimacy, he cons over-the-hill American matinee idol Tony Powell to star in the film, which is blatantly titled "The Gold of Cairo." Fabrizi then enlists the starstruck population of a tiny fishing village to unload the shipment.
[edit] Details
Co-starring with Sellers is Victor Mature (as movie star Tony Powell); also featured are Britt Ekland (as Gina, the Fox's sister); Akim Tamiroff (as Okra, the mastermind of the heist in Cairo); Martin Balsam (as Tony's agent, Harry); Maria Grazia Buccella (as Okra's voluptuous accomplice); Lydia Brazzi (as Mama Vanucci); and Lando Buzzanca (as the chief of police in Sevalio).
This was Neil Simon's first screenplay. At the time, he had three hit shows running on Broadway: Little Me, Barefoot in the Park, and The Odd Couple. Simon has said that he originally wanted to write a spoof of art house films such as Last Year at Marienbad and Michelangelo Antonioni's films, but the story evolved into the idea of a film-within-a-film. Aldo Vanucci brings to mind the fast-talking cons of Phil Silvers and the brilliant dialects of Sid Caesar. This is probably no coincidence since Simon wrote for both on television.
Vittorio De Sica (1902-1974) had been an Italian matinee idol before World War II. After the war, he turned to directing and in collaboration with author and screenwriter Cesare Zavattini, became one of the founders of the Italian neorealist movement. He won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film four times: Shoeshine, The Bicycle Thief, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, and The Garden of the Finzi-Continis. While a broad farce, After The Fox does touch on themes found in De Sica's earlier work, namely disillusionment and dignity.
Sellers (1925-1980) said that his main reason for doing the film was the chance to work with Vittorio De Sica. Sellers said he relied on De Sica to keep his characterizations on the mark, and they are.
Victor Mature (1915-1999), who had retired five years earlier, was lured back to the screen by the prospect of parodying himself as Tony Powell. Mature was always a self-effacing star who had no delusions about his own work. At the height of his fame he applied for membership in the Los Angeles Country Club, but was told that the club did not accept actors. He replied: "Have you seen my work?" One of Tony's lines must have struck a chord with the then-61 year old actor: "I'd rather get laughs than sympathy."
The film has some kinship to What's New Pussycat?, which was released the previous year and also starred Sellers. That film was the first written by Woody Allen who, like Neil Simon, had been a staff writer for Sid Caesar. Burt Bacharach and Hal David also wrote the score and the title song. ("After The Fox" is performed by The Hollies and Sellers). Even the advertising tagline for the movie poster and trailer for After The Fox proclaimed, "You Caught The Pussycat...Now Chase The Fox!"
[edit] Trivia
- The climax of the film was shot in the village of Sant' Angelo on Ischia in the Bay of Naples during the height of the tourist season. Reportedly the villagers were so busy accommodating tourists that they had no time to appear as extras in the film. The extras were brought in from a neighboring village.
- Britt Ekland (b. 1942) married Sellers in 1964. Their daughter, Victoria Sellers, who became a Heidi Fleiss girl, was born in 1965, several months before filming began. Sellers and Ekland made one other film together, "The Bobo" (1967). The couple divorced in 1968.
- Akim Tamiroff (1899-1972) had been working on and off for Orson Welles in "Don Quixote," playing Sancho Panza. The film was never finished.
- Maria Grazia Buccella (b. 1940) was a former Miss Italy (1959) and placed third in the Miss Europe pageant. She was considered for the role of Domino in "Thunderball" (1965).
- The film's poster art, which does not reflect anything about the film, was illustrated by Frank Frazetta.
[edit] External links
 Cinema of Italy |
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