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Sunday, December 6, 2020

GUARDIE E LADRI / COPS AND ROBBERS (1951)

Classic commedia all'italiana, an early, but already characteristic effort from Mario Monicello (here co-directing with Steno) in uproarious style grounded in life experience; call it Neo-Realistic Slapstick.  Sad-faced comedian Totò (real name Antonio Griffo Focas Flavio Angelo Ducas Comneno Porfirogenito Gagliardi De Curtis di Bisanzio), small time confidence man with a big family to support, is caught working the tourist trade selling fake Roman Era coins in the Forum, but escapes from Officer Aldo Fabrizi (the tubby priest in Roberto Rossellini’s OPEN CITY/’45), also with a big family to support, starting a long wily chase of recapture.  Loaded with classic set pieces (best comes early as the two old men grow too exhausted running to take even one step more), but with a perfectly structured story arc that brings the two families together between close calls, clever stratagem and shared interaction that grows into a believable relationship of partial understanding.  Shot in appropriately harsh style by future Giallo director Mario Bava, emphasizing the barren outskirts & hardscrabble life just beyond Rome, the consistently funny cat-and-mouse maneuvers never get in the way of a serious underpinning of poverty and desperation fueling the action.  Worthy of comparison with the great silent comedians of the ‘20s, it’s a superb example of the level of achievement in so much commercial Italian cinema of the ‘50s.

ATTENTIION MUST BE PAID: If you pick up a certain Jackie Gleason/Art Carney vibe here, you’re not alone.  Just check out the art work on our Spanish poster.

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