Il gaucho (1965)

Director:

Dino Risi

Writers:

Ruggero Maccari (writer)
Tullio Pinelli (writer)

Release Date:

25 March 1965 (Argentina)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot Keywords:

Italian Comedy | Gambling | Italian Cinema | Commedia All'italiana | Argentina

Cast

Vittorio Gassman	...	Marco Ravicchio
Amedeo Nazzari	...	Marucchelli
Silvana Pampanini	...	Luciana
Nino Manfredi	...	Stefano
Annie Gorassini	...	Lorella
Maria Grazia Buccella	...	Mara
Nando Angelini	...	Aldo
Nelly Panizza	...	Ines, wife of Marucchelli
Guido Gorgatti	...	Giulio
Aldo Vianello
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Jorgelina Aranda	...	Italia Marucchelli
Nora Cárpena	...	Lida
Amparito Castro
José Del Vecchio
Rafael Diserio
Umberto D'Orsi	...	Gianni Pertini, producer
Maria Fiore	...	Maria
Mario Mario
Francesco Mulé	...	Fiorini
Carmen Pericolo
Norberto Sánchez Calleja	...	Cecilio (as V. Sanchez Calleja)
Nelly Tesolín	...	Prostitute

Also Known As:

The Gaucho (International: English title)
Un italiano en la Argentina (Argentina)

Runtime:

116 min

Country:

Italy | Argentina

Language:

Italian

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Argentina:18

Filming Locations:

Buenos Aires, Federal District, Argentina

Company:

Clemente Lococo

Italians in Argentina.

THE GAUCHO was made two years after Vittorio Gassman's collaboration with Dino Risi in IL SORPASSO (THE EASY LIFE), perhaps their best of many films together. Although not as strong as the earlier film, this is a movie of substantial merit and deserves to be much better known. Gassman plays Mario Ravicchio, a financially-strapped press agent who accompanies an Italian production company on its trip to Buenos Aires to present a film at a festival there. He spends much of his time, when not seducing women, trying to accumulate some money, whether by gambling or attempting to finagle capital from expatriate Italian Marucchelli (Amedeo Nazzari), now a rich industrialist in Argentina. He gets friendship, nice words, but no money. Mario tries to tap another former friend from Rome, Stefano, but the guy turns out to be more impoverished than he is. The man is played by comic actor Nino Manfredi (of BREAD AND CHOCOLATE fame) in a short but magnificently acted supporting role as a down-and-out emigrant who has given up hope of success. The first encounter between Manfredi and Gassman with the exuberant exchange of affection between old friends is a treasure to behold. Italian actress Silvana Pampanini does a nice turn as an over-the-hills actress trying to marry a well-off Argentine who has been courting her for some time. Mario returns to Italy disillusioned but not without that saving `gioia di vivere' that characterizes him throughout this likable film with its many little rewards for the viewer. Ettore Scola, who later directed Gassman in DOWN AND DIRTY, lent his hand to the screenplay.