"Let's Talk About Men" is a four-part episode film, all of which feature the very versatile Nino Manfredi, an actor well-known in Italy but remembered in the United States primarily for "Bread and Chocolate." The film is a sort of follow-up to the 1965 "Let's Talk About Women," directed by Ettore Scola and starring Vittorio Gassman in similar comic vignettes. In the first episode, 'A Honorable Man,' Manfredi learns that his bored but beautiful wife spends her time in jewel robbery and blackmail. When his own business venture fails, he finds his wife's work a lucrative alternative. In 'The Knife Thrower," a real rib-tickler, Manfredi plays an aging knife-thrower with poor eyesight. His aiming difficulties have damaged his wife, Luciana Paluzzi, a human dartboard with a penchant for masochism. In 'A Superior Man' Manfredi humiliates and torments his dopey wife and tries to get her to kill him, just for kicks. The best one is the last, 'A Good Man,' which may be intended as a satire of what is viewed as the male Italian's working habits or loafing habits. Manfredi is a professional idler who strikes for better pay from an olive grower and is indifferent to his overworked wife, Patrizia DeClara. Uniting all these episodes is the framing device of Nino Manfredi accidentally locked out of his friend's appartment after taking a shower, naked and roaming the stairs and halls, trying to get back in without causing a commotion. This is not a great film but wonderful fun and with a clever incisive edge in the tradition of "commedia all'italiana."
