Il cappello a tre punte

In the 1930s Italian film era often mistakenly dismissed for its "white telephone" programmers, director Mario Camerini stood out for his gracious use of outdoor settings and his down to earth populism.Here he plays on an often filmed Spanish farce by using the talented two De Filippo brothers in roles where their resemblance makes the plot pivoting on mistaken identity plausible. (in his 50s remake the casting of De Sica and Mastroianni didn't quite work that way) And in the sequences at night in the mill where the Governor and his assistant both land up putting on white miller outfits and caps, and confront each other in the dark, I was reminded of the classic slapstick confrontation of Groucho and his look alike in the Marx Brothers Duck Soup.Though the precise reasons for the several arguments in the streets leading to political turmoil early in the story are not immediately understandable in an unsubtitled print to this non Italian speaking viewer,the rest of the action is conveyed by Camerini in more clearly graspable visual terms.