After the Fox (1966)

That was an excellent one.

Powerful

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

'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!

Whilst Hollywood has seemed to have had trouble,trying to make Christmas/New Years Day "event films" in a post-Lord of the Rings era (with the main exceptions being 2005s double bill of event films,with the first Narnia film,and King Kong fighting it out, lion v ape,and last years world conquering return of James Cameron,after thirteen years,with the sci-fi adventure epic Avatar.)In the meantime,Bollywood has been turning the end of the year "event film",into a unstoppable juggernaut,with such films as the Mermento-inspired ultra-violence revenge thriller in Gujini,a gathering of (almost) every living Bollywood legend,in the fun reincarnation film Om Shanti Om,and a shockingly stunning mix of extremely strong writing,good casting,and an amazingly fast paced feel (even at a running time of over two and a half hours) with 2009s 3 Idiots.Sadly,this great run got stopped in 2010.with the comedy "event" film Tees Maar Khan,whose characters were just that little bit too annoying for most audience members to be entertained by.When I started reading up about Tees Maar a few weeks before its release,and I found out that the movie wad going to be a remake of a film called After the Fox.Since I have enjoyed watching some of the other great films that Neil Simon has wrote,and having always been entertained by some of the film and radio work that Peter Sellers has done,I was very intrigued to see what type of film would be made,with both of them working together..The plot:As news of a $3 million robbery of gold bars, reaches the ears of the (jailed) worlds best criminal Aldo "the Fox" Vanucci,He decides to tell the wardens that he is going to break out of the prison at 3pm!.With having stolen someones identity,Vanucci escapes the jail right under everybody's nose.When he returns to his old home,he finds the person who has set up the robbery,who needs help to bring the gold into the country.Although both men are able to work out a deal (with Aldo getting 50% of the gold)Vanucci also has to deal with the trouble of his sister giving up school,so that she can become an actress.Luckaly for The Fox,when he is getting chased by some officers who want him for the prison escape,he hides at a film premiere.Suddenly,a light bulb goes off in Aldos head,that if he pretends that he is a film director,making a film in a small town,he will be able to use all the local people and police offices to unwittingly help him transfer the gold!.Although,when he starts to make the film,The Fox realises that keeping his patients with the cast & crew might be even tougher then importing the gold...View on the film:Though the screenplay is not as strong as some of his later films,such as the excellent movie The Odd Couple,the first screenplay by Neil Simons is still filled with a good amount of fun material.With,parts of the film (such as the scenes where The Fox is trying to get a faded Hollywood actor to star in his "avant-garde film.")showing some great signs of some of his future work.Whilst I was watching the film,one of the main scenes that instantly stuck out to me,was a scene where Aldo talks to the gold smuggle through the middle (wo)man,which I instantly recognised as something that was copied for the third Austin Powers film,although I think that Simons version of the joke is a lot stronger.For the avant-garde false- film shooting,director Vittorio De Sica,impressively always makes it that the audience is laughing with the characters and there avant-garde film,and not at them,with De Sica making sure that the film does not turn into a totally bitter satire about the film industry.For the cast,I feel that whilst Peter Sellers gives a very good performance,of an oddly slightly centre character,the clear stand out is Victor Mature as the fading Hollywood star Tony.Mature impressively being far ahead of the self-mocking former major actors of the classic Larry Sanders Show,with his great grizzled performance, showing a very pleasing amount of surprising sincerity.Final view on the film:A fun- filled,slightly wacky film,with good performances,a well-written screenplay and extremely engaging directing form Vittorio De Sica

Start with Hitchcock's "To Catch a Thief" and "North by Northwest", two tongue-in-cheek 1950's thrillers from which a line can be drawn directly to EON films' James Bond franchise. Keeping Hitchcock's humour and amping up the master's outlandish action set pieces, the first Bond movie premiered in 1962, and over the decade would be parodied by several spy spoofs and crime comedies, one of which was "The Pink Panther", a Peter Sellers vehicle released in 1963.Jump to 1968. "After The Fox" is released, another in a long line of crime spoofs, but one which has the strange distinction of being directed by legendary Italian director Vittorio De Sica. Again starring Peter Sellers, the film's plot pulls from "Pink Panther" (a heist plot, a bumbling hero, animated intros), "James Bond" (a suave, globe trotting hero) and Hitchcock (Sellers' fox burglar replaces Cary Grant's cat burglar), and works fairly well as an absurd parody, but its most interesting assets are De Sica's energetic storytelling and a slightly subversive subplot which satirises art house cinema and views with bitterness the way the movie industry exploits actors and ordinary people.The film was ignored upon release, but viewed in the context of all the other spoof comedies of the 60s, and even recent "bumbling hero spoofs" like "Johnny English" and "Austin Powers", De Sica's work holds up well. During this period, on the other side of the Atlantic, Woody Allen was treading similar ground with his own 60's comedies ("Pussycat", "Tiger Lilly", "Take The Money" etc).7.5/10 – Though De Sica's early neorealist work is championed, it's from this film onwards that he became a great artist. This is the case throughout history: the mediocre later works of bad artists are praised in favour for their early, greater works, whilst the late - and more sophisticated - works of great artists are ignored in favour for their earlier, easier works. This is not a great film, but it marks the point at which De Sica became a different person.Worth one viewing.

Peter Sellers is a real enigma. During his career, he made many brilliant films with amazing characterizations (such as DR. STRANGELOVE, BEING THERE, THE MOUSE THAT ROARED and many others), but he also did a lot of amazingly limp films that he practically slept through (THE FIENDISH PLOT OF FU MANCHU and THE PRISONER OF ZENDA). AFTER THE FOX is unusual in that it isn't exactly brilliant but still is very good. As far as Sellers' performance goes, he did a lovely Italian accent and his character was pretty credible, though despite being the star of the film, he wasn't the standout performer (I think this was actually Victor Mature--doing a wonderful self-parody).The Fox is a master criminal who escapes from prison rather easily in order to keep his sister out of trouble. At first, he thinks she's become a prostitute, but later he finds she's become (horrors) and actress!! Interestingly enough, his sister is played by Sellers' real-life wife, Britt Ekland and his love interest in the film was played by an unknown (but beautiful) Italian. Once out of prison, he learns about a big caper from Akim Tamiroff--smuggling in millions of dollars worth of gold into Italy. So, inspired by his sister's desire to be a movie star, he decides to make a fake film and use this as the cover to smuggle in the gold--and this is how Victor Mature comes into the film. He plays a parody of himself but is very vain and over the hill--telling everyone he's in his thirties even though he's pushing 60! I loved how he insisted he was so young when it was so obvious he wasn't--especially in the scene where Britt throws herself at him and runs her fingers through his hair--only to have them stained black by hair dye. Plus, he was so full of himself that he was gullible enough to believe he was making an art film when in fact Sellers and his gang obviously had no idea what they were doing.By the way, how Sellers got all the film equipment was pretty interesting. As the film was directed by Vittorio DeSica, he himself appeared in a small scene. He and his crew were filming some Egyptian epic when suddenly the wind machines turned on at full blast. When they were finally turned off, all the equipment--even DeSica's platform and cameras--were missing--stolen by Sellers' gang.Throughout the film there were many cute moments, but also towards the end the film did lag a bit and the ending seemed to be a bit of a letdown. I especially became bored with the chase scene and the ensuing courtroom scene. Still, it was original and moderately funny with some excellent performances.By the way, the film clip we see of a younger Victor Mature in an older black and white film was from EASY LIVING--one of Mature's better films. I suggest you try to find it.