(Some spoilers) This madcap "giallo" farce, directed by Giacomo Gentilomo, suggests an Italianized Howard Hawks film, complete with spitfire dialog and outrageous wacko characters. Two doctors have been mysteriously murdered. A famous mystery writer is suspected because his stories bear an uncanny resemblance to the facts of the murders. His wife is perhaps more astute than he is and is able to vindicate her husband by uncovering evidence leading to a demented woman in the clinic.
This pleasant escapist pap was a fairly successful film when it came out in wartime Italy and was an antidote to the grim reality outside the theatre for 80 minutes or so.
Umberto Melnati induces chuckles as Ugo, the writer, with his goofy off-kilter voice and delivery style. Vivi Gioi as his astute wife Cristina suggests a Mediterranean Myrna Loy. Gulglielmo Barnabo' steals the show from time to time as the eager but hypersensitive journalist on the case, forever on the phone with his impatient editor. At one point he is near tears, but at the end he tells his boss he's a cretin.
The film's title, I believe, was written as one word: CORTOCIRCUITO, which means "short circuit." Electrocution also figures into the zany plot.
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