Franco Fabrizi Movies
Franco Fabrizi was in his very early twenties when he began his career on the Italian variety stage. In films from 1952, he was frequently seen in the works of Federico Fellini, most notably as small town roué Fausto in I Vitteloni (1953) and small-time crook Roberto in Il Bidone (1955). In later years, his youthful rakishness mellowed into a jaded world weariness, both offscreen and on. Franco Fabrizi made his last screen appearance in 1988, seven years before his death in his home town of Cortemaggiore. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1988
Father Maurice (Walter Matthau) is called on to perform an exorcism of a demon from a fat lady in this offbeat comedy. What emerges is Giuditta (Roberto Benigni) a narcissistic, fun-loving devil with a penchant for nonsensical sayings, and the devil attaches himself to Father Maurice for a series of comedy gags. Giuditta falls for the gambler Nina (Nicoletta Braschi) and impedes the priest's romantic progress with the beautiful Patrizia (Stefania Sandrelli). Maurice discovers that Nina and the expressionless Cusatelli (John Lurie) are two demons sent to retrieve the wayward Giuditta. Matthau and Benigni provide the majority of the laughs with Benigni doubling as director and devil. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Roberto Benigni, Walter Matthau, (more)
Director Federico Fellini gently lampoons the world of small-time show business in Ginger and Fred. Giulietta Masina and Marcello Mastroianni star as Amelia Bonetti and Pippo Botticella, a onetime celebrity song-and-dance team. Having risen to fame with a dancing act where they recreated the acts of Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire (hoping to become the Fred and Ginger of Italy), Amelia and Pippo parted company to pursue their separate lives. Neither one was particularly successful in other fields of endeavor, so when after many years Amelia is offered a guest-star gig on a TV variety show, she jumps at the chance. She also seeks out her former partner, Pippo, who may have looked like Astaire in his younger days, but now....The overall good cheer of the film was dampened when the real Ginger Rogers sued the distributors of Ginger and Fred for "defamation of character." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marcello Mastroianni, Giulietta Masina, (more)
- 1986
In this entertaining drama, "Carefree Giovanni" (Sergio Castellitto) is the beleaguered last heir to a dukedom closely associated with the great artist Leonardo da Vinci. As the curtain opens, one of Giovanni's ancestors drops dead when he hears that Leonardo has died. Cut to the present, and the last duke in this line, Giovanni, is miserable in a home shared by two older women who browbeat and badger him without mercy. Giovanni's one solace is to go up on the rooftop and gaze out at the world around him as he daydreams. He has a special passion for the lovely Claire (Eleonora Girogi) who lives next door. To show his sincerity, he zooms off paper airplanes in her direction. However, these missiles are made from actual letters written by the great Leonardo himself. Could this man be last link in the lineage that started 400 years earlier? ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sergio Castellitto, Eleonora Giorgi, (more)
- 1984
Sophia Loren plays an Italian cab driver whose 12-year-old son (played by her real-life son Edoardo Ponti) is blinded in an accident. Lacking the funds necessary for her son's operation, Sophia goes the Buona Sera Mrs. Campbell route by scouring the Italian countryside looking for her former lovers. By claiming that each man is the father of her son, Ms. Loren is able to build up a sizeable bank account. True love rears its head when Sophia hits upon her American ex-lover Daniel J. Travanti, an embittered recluse who lives near Mont Blanc, on the French/Italian border. In addition to Edoardo Ponti, several other members of Sophia's family pop up as actors and on the production staff of Aurora; in addition, Ricky Tognazzi, son of Italian film star Ugo Tognazzi, is featured in the cast. Originally titled Aurora by Night, this US/Italian coproduction premiered on NBC TV in October of 1984, then was released theatrically in Europe. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1983
In this black comedy, a struggling actor-playwright goes on tour with a play he wrote for himself and his lover. It is about the life and love between Benito Mussolini and Claretta Petracci, his mistress. When his show travels to Italy it meets with a very negative response from the local Communists who throw tomatoes at them. To get them to stop, the actor changes their minds by placing emphasis on the romance between the two rather than the politics. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ugo Tognazzi, Bernadette Lafont, (more)
- 1979
Bruno Martel Luc Merenda is an idealistic hero who questions the meaning of life in this confusing and sometimes hallucinatory erotic drama. After a night in jail, he is gang-raped by punk rockers in a garbage dump. He later saves an old man who believes he is Garibaldi Alberto Sorrentino and a woman he believes is Ophelia Susanna Javicoli. Bruno watches helplessly as she later jumps from a window. The feature recalls some of the more avant garde efforts of Italian cinema from the 1960s. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Luc Merenda, Adriana Asti, (more)
- 1978
In this complex political thriller, a police inspector operating out of Geneva discovers that the death of a Swiss journalist in Italy has more to do with Swiss international banking and high finance than is entirely comfortable. Indeed, as his investigation proceeds, he encounters car bombs and murders galore and challenges the prevailing system, briefly. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean Sorel, Brigitte Fossey, (more)
- 1975
An ordinary man is driven to violence in the name of revenge in this drama. Paul Varlin (Jean-Louis Trintignant) is a businessman who decides to take his wife and daughter on a vacation. While stopping for gas, Varlin's wife is accosted by a gang of motorcycle thugs, who progress from ogling her legs to raping both the wife and the young girl, and then killing them both. When Varlin discovers this horrible crime, he takes it upon himself to track down and kill the bikers in the name of justice. L'Agression also features Catherine Deneuve and Claude Brasseur. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean-Louis Trintignant, Catherine Deneuve, (more)
The Last House on the Left was a morally bankrupt but highly profitable film about rape, murder, and revenge. The 1978 sequel, The New House on the Left, may even be more reprehensible than the original. Whereas the murder site of the first film was a remote house, the scene of the crime in the sequel is a train (thereby negating the title). This film includes more rapes, more murders, and more revenge than the original --and, undoubtedly, more cash lining the pockets of the producers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Flavio Bucci, Macha Meril, (more)
- 1975
The Italian Man with a Flower in His Mouth bears no relation to the Luigi Pirandello one-act play of the same title. Also known as Flower in His Mouth, and The Masters this thriller stars Jennifer O'Neill as an American schoolteacher, newly arrived in Sicily. No sooner has she assumed her duties in a remote rural town than a series of ritual murders begins. Is Jennifer the catalyst, the cause...or merely the excuse? The film's original Italian title was Gente di Rispetto. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Marcello Mastroianni stars in this French farce, an absurd "western" set in Paris, with Mastroianni as the incurably vain General George Armstrong Custer. Richard Nixon is the American president, but everyone is costumed appropriately for the previous century. Buffalo Bill (Michel Piccoli), the famous scout, is here portrayed as a limp-wristed bungler. Ugo Tognazzi plays one of Custer's Native American opponents; he runs a curio shop selling Native artifacts made in sweatshops by white women. The climactic battle is held in a large construction excavation where Les Halles market used to be. The language the two sides use to justify their conflict is lifted from that used in the then-current Vietnam War. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marcello Mastroianni, Michel Piccoli, (more)
- 1972
- R
This Italian action film focuses on a crook, framed as a drug kingpin, whose wife is killed by the mob as a result. He must take matters into his own hands to have revenge. Manhunt was also re-titled The Italian Connection to steal thunder from its French counterpart. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Woody Strode, Cyril Cusack, (more)
- 1972
In this Italian crime drama, Bertone (Enrico Maria Salerno) is a moderately honest homicide cop. Unfortunately, the court system is so inept and corrupt that many more-or-less honest policemen have begun taking the law into their own hands. Between his efforts to thwart the growth of crime and to control his vengeful co-workers, homicide-chief Bertone has his hands full. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1971
What started out as a one-night stand grows more complicated as television news-reporter Luigi (Gianni Morandi) encounters the traditional values not only of his girlfriend (Stefania Casini), but of the tiny provincial fishing village in which she lives. Through a series of events, he comes to prefer the more settled values of the countryside to the swinging ways of the big city. This film is notable as the first film appearance of the Italian pop singer Gianni Morandi. This Italian language film has no dubbing or subtitles. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
Based on a novel by Thomas Mann, Death in Venice stars Dirk Bogarde as a German composer who is terrified that he has lost all vestiges of humanity. While visiting Venice, Bogarde falls in love with a beautiful young boy (Bjorn Andresen). The relationship is ruined by Bogarde's obsession with the boy's youth and physical perfection; the composer realizes that the child represents an ideal that he can never match. The character played by Dirk Bogarde is evidently intended to be Gustav Mahler, whose haunting music is featured on the film's soundtrack. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dirk Bogarde, Bjorn Andresen, (more)
- 1970
Evans (Louis De Funes) stars in this situation comedy about a man in charge of a female ballet troupe. The only other man in the house is his nephew Philippe (Olivier De Funes). One of the former residents becomes pregnant, and anonymous note labels the nephew as the father. Evans seeks out the girl only to find she has another child as well. He soon gets roped into becoming a nursemaid to the squalling infant and the year old child. The part of the nephew is played by Louis' son, and the film features several songs and dances. the role of Evans is played with a more restrained manner by the popular French comic. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Louis de Funès, Noëlle Adam, (more)
- 1969
This situation comedy finds a chauffeur taking the rap for his wealthy industrialist boss for a traffic accident. To add injury to insult, the driver discovers on his wedding night that he is married to his boss' mistress as well. Oscar (Ugo Tognazzi) is the little man caught in a world of high-powered moguls who can buy their way out of any problem. Oscar takes the fall and while already doing time, he receives another prison sentence for involvement in a shipbuilding scam. He also discovers to his chagrin that his wife and his boss are expecting a child together in this satire of the rich and privileged elite versus the common man. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ugo Tognazzi, Maria Grazia Buccella, (more)
- 1968
This comedy concerns an inventor (Robert Dhery) of a boat who is fired by his violent, irascible boss when the project is completed. The boat, christened Le Petit Baigneur, is wanted by the Boss (Louis De Funes), who pulls out all the stops to possess the coveted craft. Author-actor-director Dhery wrote this story especially for the comedic styling of De Funes, one of Frances most popular comedians at the time of the feature's release. His "slow burn" is reminiscent of American actor James Finlayson, who perfected the technique in the silent-film era and continued his success in countless films, usually being tormented by the antics of Laurel and Hardy. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Louis de Funès, Robert Dhéry, (more)
Jason Fister (Dustin Hoffman) is the Internal Revenue Service agent sent to Rome to investigate the hidden money of the late gangster Mike Madigan (Cesar Romero). Jason meets Vick Shaw ( Elsa Martinelli) and he mistakenly takes her to be the dead mobster's mistress when in fact she is his daughter. Soon underworld thugs converge on the couple in an attempt to steal the stolen loot. This film was completed in 1967 and was subsequently shelved. It was released in the wake of Hoffman's popularity from his roles in The Graduate and Midnight Cowboy. This inept and contrived comedy is Hoffman's first feature film. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cesar Romero, Elsa Martinelli, (more)
- 1967
Yet another entry in a long series of 1960s Italian sex comedies, this one has some clever moments in its study of four beautiful women (Ursula Andress, Marisa Mell, Virna Lisi, and Claudine Auger) who cheat on their husbands to relieve their marital discontent. Jean-Pierre Cassel also stars in this typical anthology written by Ruggero Maccari and Ettore Scola. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ursula Andress, Virna Lisi, (more)
- 1967
In this stylish crime drama, a smooth-talking insurance investigator looks into a bank robbery and ends up breaking up two famous gangs involved in a drug war. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean Yanne
- 1966
Pietro Germi's funny anthology combines the standard sex comedy format with some unexpectedly subtle observations about village life. The film centers on three stories exposing the sexual secrets of the Italian town of Treviso. Toni Gasparini (Alberto Lionello) pretends to be impotent in order to wrangle an illicit affair with his doctor's wife. Bank clerk Osvaldo Bisigato (Gastone Moschin) leaves his shrewish wife (Nora Ricci) to move in with his mistress Milena (Virna Lisi), a cafe cashier, but Treviso's jealous husbands unite to cost the lovers their jobs and have them arrested. Meanwhile, most of the village's men are busy seducing a promiscuous teenager (Patrizia Valturri), whose father eventually reveals that she is underage. Franco Fabrizi, Beba Loncar, and cult filmmaker Giulio Questi are among the cast, and Carlo Rustichelli provided the score. Signore e Signori won the Best Film award at the 1966 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Virna Lisi, Gastone Moschin, (more)
