The poster may look like copycat Inspector Clouseau, a quick Italian ripoff for the local market. And Alberto Sordi’s overly ambitious detective certainly shows Clouseau-esque qualities as he fumbles his way thru a ‘closed’ murder investigation. But this film came out the year before THE PINK PANTHER/’63, a follow up collaboration for Sordi with director Luigi Comencini after the critical & commercial success of TUTTI A CASA/’60. (Not seen here; hard to find a decent subtitled print!). This one is fun, and has its moments, but it’s not quite fully worked out; and the ending, though conceptually brilliant, is more than a little abrupt. Very Italian in its manners, too, which may explain why it didn’t get around. A meet-cute for Sordi and his putative fiancée sees him tailing his beloved as if she were a suspect. Local teen toughs shoot a cat up in a rocket. Later, the dead cat shows up as dinner for a night watchman. Yikes! At least the fatal rocket crash lands on the film’s main case, a murdered big shot politico whose killing is an easy case until Sordi finds enough discrepancies to reopen the investigation and make his rep. (A promotion will allow him to propose.) If only the case would stay solved! Between withdrawn ‘confessions’ and newly uncovered facts, Sordi’s heading for a breakdown at the murder trial, a disgraced mental wreck. In Comencini’s world view, the rich and politically connected get away with murder, literally. (As if we didn't already know.) But neatly handled on the whole, with sidesplitting asides from Sordi’s future in-laws and thru sadder-but-wiser advice from Sordi’s superior. (Advice not taken in Sordi’s rush to get at a truth no one really wants uncovered.) Plus a magnificent finale featuring the unconquerable Italian appetite. Good stuff, if not fully reaching its potential.
DOUBLE-BIL/LINK: Sordi’s even better on his next pic, working with Alberto Lattuada on one of the greatest (and darkest) of all commedia all'italiana films, MAFIOSO/’62. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2010/03/mafioso-1962.html
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