La banda degli onesti

Our hero, Antonio, is the concierge at an apartment complex. He is about to be evicted from his place. A man dies and leaves him real engraved plates from the Italian mint that he had stolen years earlier after working for the government.

A superb situational comedy follows as Antonio rounds up four of his best friends and they proceed to become counterfeiters. Of course, as in all comedies of this type, nothing really goes right.

The acting is superb and much of it is plan deadpan in expression. There are wonderful moments of wordplay at the expense of the character named Lo Turco. There is much classic slapstick comedy as well.

I saw this as part of a summer retrospective at the National Gallery of Art. I urge everyone to seek out the comedies of Toto wherever they are available. I really have never seen better comedy films than the ones starring this wonderful comedian.