Alberto Sordi directs and stars in this movie. He puts all his class in acting. Probably his greatest shape had gone at the time. He plays a family man whos job is selling weapons to African dictators. He will be forced to give those weapons to the guerrillas after he's been captured by those guys. The plot doesn't tell much but there's many reasons watching this movie: Sordi puts all his melancholic vision of life in this movie making the story so real despite the unique role he's playing. Beside it's remarkable that his sons are first disgusting his job of death seller but then he has to go on with his job to give his family the wealthy life they were having. Remarkable is also the soundtrack by Piero Piccioni.
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mf97628 March 2007It's not among the best Sordi's movies. Alberto provides a large amount of fun as usual, but most events are simply unbelievable and the general impression is of an imprecise, almost amateurish work. It's the final scene that's worth the existence of this piece of cinema. And it's great cinema. The kind of cinema that speaks out, makes statements. Even though one could not agree with those statements or label them as irresponsible or even right oriented. Pietro Chiocca is an arm dealer who, during a business trip across Africa, is fooled by a journalist who puts his face upon every Italian newspaper. When Pietro comes back home, after having avoided death across numerous terrific adventures, he finds his whole family angry at him because he's a death salesman. His wife is disgusted, his kids shout at him that they're ashamed of their father's job. Instead of being offended, Pietro laughs out and, with a sense of relief, makes a speech, a speech that unloads a shiver along your spine. He says -Ok, i'll quit selling arms, i'll go back to my old job if you ask for it. I will earn much less money but I'll be happier and it will be moral. But we'll have to leave this fabulous mansion and you'll have to forget your cars, motorbikes, jewelry, luxury and social status. Consider it. Don't answer now. I'm tired and i'm going to bed. I need to catch a plane in three hours to go back to business: if you really want me to stop doing what I do, let me sleep, because I need it, otherwise wake me up- And they wake him up.
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Pietro, in order to satisfy the cravings for luxury and upper class respectability, of his beautiful wife, changes job from bathroom equipment salesman to arms salesman .....his earnings shoot up, but so does his problems !!!
He increasingly becomes out of touch of his family's obvious enjoyment of their prestigious social status, and selling weapons to petty African dictators(some very funny scenes) is stressful to say the least made worse by the presence of a rival French salesman!
It is a common theme in Alberto Sordi films of men victim to their beautiful wife's whims, to the extent that they sometimes ruin themselves !! Also this obsession of attaining high class 'respectability' is definitely an all Italian phenomena, esp. in the 1950's and 60's.
However Alberto Sordi always manages to make fun, of these national tracts without being overbearing and rhetorical.
The film in the second half , losses direction and becomes a boring,moral and anti-war rhetoric....a pity....with a bit more thought this part of the film could have been made better. But films in those times(1950's & 1960's), in Italy, at least, were quickly written and made on shoe string budgets, hence, the rather silly names to these films.Money had to be made quickly on these films, so little time on the artistic side was dedicated.
I have always felt that a remake could be made of the film,perhaps with Bob Hoskins or Danny de Vito in the role of Pietro. It's one of the few Italian films that could be successfully transposed to a more Anglo-Saxon settings.
It could a real hit !! My vote for the film a generous 7. -
Chinesevil15 February 2022The realistic plot of this movie shows how rotten the world is with a dark humor that is quite funny in the various scenes. The lead actor is a great actor, but in general there are gaps in the quality of the film.