The Archangel (1969)
Furio Bertuccia, a corruptible lawyer who defends lost causes, is hired by the glamorous model Gloria Bianchi to defend her from the alleged murder of her lover.
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Fantastic!
Excellent, Without a doubt!!
Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.
True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.
Failing on the job, Milanese lawyer Furio Bertuccia (Vittorio Gassman) is always open for any funny business to make money. But even he is surprised when the beautiful model Gloria (Pamela Tiffin) visits him late at night, claiming she has murdered her doctor boyfriend and is in need of a lawyer. Turns out the girl is talking nonsense all the time, and there is no murder after all. Half in love, half interested in the heritage the girl mentioned, Furio follows her to Paris, where she tells him another crazy story, this time about a planned murder, the victim: Her rich industrialist boyfriend Roda (Adolfo Celi). Furio is getting introduced into this strange circle and does not realize he might become a scapegoat for a very real murderÂ… As the title says, this movie's screenplay initially had an angel doing justice on earth, but it was heavily re- written, and unfortunately the final down-to-earth plot with slight borrowings in dark comedy and crime leaves something to be desired. The movie doesn't have any real highlights or outstanding scenes. It moves fast enough to avoid boredom, there are a couple of nice running gags (like Furios regular babbling that everybody takes for inapt laughing) and recurring situations (with Furio's sidekick and the police). But the plot itself is rather tame and it takes a long time until Gloria's stories make a little bit of sense.Luckily, there are other qualities to the movie. The actors are excellent: Gassman shows off his comedian qualities various times. He, Tiffin and Celi work well together and they have some really funny dialogs. There is even an uncredited appearance of soon-to-be superstar Laura Antonelli. And Stelvio Massi's camera work is very lively, full of nice angles and movements.Overall this is a decent one for friends of old-school comedy. Slight shortcomings in the plot are easily covered by the great actors, so I wasn't disappointed. But clearly there are better Italian comedies out there.6,5