Love and Larceny
Original title: Il mattatore
- 19601960
- 1h 43min
Gerardo, an aspiring actor, trying unsuccessfully to cross over from comedy to tragedy, is involved, due to his ability to mimic dialects of Italy, in a scam concocted by Lallo against a ric... Read allGerardo, an aspiring actor, trying unsuccessfully to cross over from comedy to tragedy, is involved, due to his ability to mimic dialects of Italy, in a scam concocted by Lallo against a rich cloth-merchant.Gerardo, an aspiring actor, trying unsuccessfully to cross over from comedy to tragedy, is involved, due to his ability to mimic dialects of Italy, in a scam concocted by Lallo against a rich cloth-merchant.
Aldo Bufi Landi
- Un poliziottoas Un poliziotto
- (as Aldo Bufilandi)
Gerardo, an aspiring actor, trying unsuccessfully to cross over from comedy to tragedy, is involved, due to his ability to mimic dialects of Italy, in a scam concocted by Lallo against a rich cloth-merchant.
Top review
A launchpad towards better Gassman movies
According to the Italian Wikipedia, this movie was adapted from an eponymous Italian TV show. It consists of loosely-assembled sketches where Gassman is given a free hand to go through various characters and disguises.
The whole thing is watchable, of course, but suffers from the lack of dramatic tension since there's barely a storyline. Besides, most sketches were possibly funny 60 years ago, now they bring a smile at best - you see the gags coming from a distance. Gassman is of course a terrific presence, but in some episodes he's completely over-the-top.
Strangely enough, the most endearing moments of the movie, as far as I'm concerned, were some "transition" sequences which show peeks of everyday's life in the Italy of 1960 - scenes with Dorian Gray, the restaurant sequences, shots of the poor Roma suburbs... All in all a minor movie.
The whole thing is watchable, of course, but suffers from the lack of dramatic tension since there's barely a storyline. Besides, most sketches were possibly funny 60 years ago, now they bring a smile at best - you see the gags coming from a distance. Gassman is of course a terrific presence, but in some episodes he's completely over-the-top.
Strangely enough, the most endearing moments of the movie, as far as I'm concerned, were some "transition" sequences which show peeks of everyday's life in the Italy of 1960 - scenes with Dorian Gray, the restaurant sequences, shots of the poor Roma suburbs... All in all a minor movie.
helpful•20
- derzu_uzala
- May 14, 2021
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