movie-enthusiast When I wrote my first review of this film, I was the only reviewer. I wrote it in the hope that it would be "rediscovered" by Peter Sellers fans especially. Now there are 32 reviews! I am glad that so many people are enjoying this film. Many of the other reviews are excellent and I cannot improve on them so I want to say some different things.If you had seen Victor Mature in other films, none were comedies. He was in Biblical epics; Samson and Delilah, Demetrius and the Gladiators, The Robe, and The Egyptian. He was Tumak in One Million B.C.(1940) and Doc Holliday in My Darling Clementine. He's played a romantic lead, a gangster, a cowboy, a caveman, a secret agent, and a cop. However; when he is cast in a comedy as an ageing matinée idol, the theatrical impact is tremendous. The fact that he fully embraces the part makes it the slam-dunk winner of the most perfectly casted part of all time! (His sense of humor off the screen was well known in Southern California: "I'm not an actor and I have 64 films to prove it.") To contradict his self-deprecating remarks, in this film Mature proves that he can act.Vittorio De Sica must be credited with bringing this Neil Simon comedy to life with his talented direction. De Sica's experience making comedies went back to when he was a young man and still an actor. He and his wife, Giuditta Rissone, along with Sergio Tofano, formed an acting company in 1933 which performed mostly light comedies. In "After the Fox", De Sica had a field day poking fun at Federico Fellini and Ingmar Bergman. There is one more thing of note. He was notorious for gambling. This caused him to work on some films that he wouldn't have otherwise. Sometimes he projected his own fantasies into his films -- The Gold of Cairo(?). In any case, I'm sure he won his bet on this film.By the way, does the reader know that Gina Romantica (Britt Ekland) was Mrs. Peter Sellers during the time when this film was made.

morrison-dylan-fan Whilst Hollywood has seemed to have had trouble,trying to make Christmas/New Years Day "event films" in a post-Lord of the Rings era (with the main exceptions being 2005s double bill of event films,with the first Narnia film,and King Kong fighting it out, lion v ape,and last years world conquering return of James Cameron,after thirteen years,with the sci-fi adventure epic Avatar.)In the meantime,Bollywood has been turning the end of the year "event film",into a unstoppable juggernaut,with such films as the Mermento-inspired ultra-violence revenge thriller in Gujini,a gathering of (almost) every living Bollywood legend,in the fun reincarnation film Om Shanti Om,and a shockingly stunning mix of extremely strong writing,good casting,and an amazingly fast paced feel (even at a running time of over two and a half hours) with 2009s 3 Idiots.Sadly,this great run got stopped in 2010.with the comedy "event" film Tees Maar Khan,whose characters were just that little bit too annoying for most audience members to be entertained by.When I started reading up about Tees Maar a few weeks before its release,and I found out that the movie wad going to be a remake of a film called After the Fox.Since I have enjoyed watching some of the other great films that Neil Simon has wrote,and having always been entertained by some of the film and radio work that Peter Sellers has done,I was very intrigued to see what type of film would be made,with both of them working together..The plot:As news of a $3 million robbery of gold bars, reaches the ears of the (jailed) worlds best criminal Aldo "the Fox" Vanucci,He decides to tell the wardens that he is going to break out of the prison at 3pm!.With having stolen someones identity,Vanucci escapes the jail right under everybody's nose.When he returns to his old home,he finds the person who has set up the robbery,who needs help to bring the gold into the country.Although both men are able to work out a deal (with Aldo getting 50% of the gold)Vanucci also has to deal with the trouble of his sister giving up school,so that she can become an actress.Luckaly for The Fox,when he is getting chased by some officers who want him for the prison escape,he hides at a film premiere.Suddenly,a light bulb goes off in Aldos head,that if he pretends that he is a film director,making a film in a small town,he will be able to use all the local people and police offices to unwittingly help him transfer the gold!.Although,when he starts to make the film,The Fox realises that keeping his patients with the cast & crew might be even tougher then importing the gold...View on the film:Though the screenplay is not as strong as some of his later films,such as the excellent movie The Odd Couple,the first screenplay by Neil Simons is still filled with a good amount of fun material.With,parts of the film (such as the scenes where The Fox is trying to get a faded Hollywood actor to star in his "avant-garde film.")showing some great signs of some of his future work.Whilst I was watching the film,one of the main scenes that instantly stuck out to me,was a scene where Aldo talks to the gold smuggle through the middle (wo)man,which I instantly recognised as something that was copied for the third Austin Powers film,although I think that Simons version of the joke is a lot stronger.For the avant-garde false- film shooting,director Vittorio De Sica,impressively always makes it that the audience is laughing with the characters and there avant-garde film,and not at them,with De Sica making sure that the film does not turn into a totally bitter satire about the film industry.For the cast,I feel that whilst Peter Sellers gives a very good performance,of an oddly slightly centre character,the clear stand out is Victor Mature as the fading Hollywood star Tony.Mature impressively being far ahead of the self-mocking former major actors of the classic Larry Sanders Show,with his great grizzled performance, showing a very pleasing amount of surprising sincerity.Final view on the film:A fun- filled,slightly wacky film,with good performances,a well-written screenplay and extremely engaging directing form Vittorio De Sica

bkoganbing After The Fox finds Peter Sellers and his then bride Britt Eklund working in Italy for director Vittorio DeSica. In it Sellers plays a criminal who if he's not quite a master at the crime trade, at least he's not a bumbler like Inspector Clousseau. The laughs Sellers gets in After The Fox come at the expense of others.A robbery of gold bullion has occurred in Egypt and Interpol is on the case. As we learned in The Lavender Hill Mob, gold bullion is not that easy to transport. Taking on the job of getting it into Europe after he's broken out of jail once again is Peter Sellers.How to do it? Right out in the open during the course of shooting a movie about a heist. Sellers pretends to be a director and gets the a whole coastal village in on his scheme. After all, who doesn't want to be in the movies?Part of Sellers plan is to convince over the hill American movie actor Victor Mature to star in his film. After The Fox was Mature's first film in five years, at this point in his life he worked when he felt like it. Mature was one of the least vain of all film stars, how many will say that he's no actor and have 63 pictures to prove it. He looked like he was having a ball satirizing himself and several of his colleagues still pretending they're leading men. Britt Eklund is Seller's girl friend and Akim Tamiroff is the guy who pulled off the gold heist. Maria Gracia Buccella has an unforgettable part as Tamiroff's sister and 'the bikini trap'. This woman in a bikini makes Sophia Loren look flat-chested. Martin Balsam also has a good role as Mature's exasperated agent.To see what happens if the budding film director can really smuggle some gold into Italy you have to see After The Fox. It's one of Peter Sellers best films and you've got to love Victor Mature for what he does with his own image here.

mclarenracer I agree with the other reviewers that this is a forgotten gem. Sellers' portrayal of Italian thief Vanucci is as funny as his Clousseau! It satirizes peoples' obsession with film beautifully from wannabe actors to starstruck townspeople to film critics. (IMDbers take note!) Mike Myers gave this film a nod when he used one of its bits in an Austin Powers movie: instead of the contact speaking while Sellers kisses his beautiful sister, Austin is preoccupied with Nathan Lane! Victor Mature gets laughs as the aging actor. The scene in which Ekland runs her fingers through his hair, and they end up covered in black dye is just one of the film's funny gags. I first saw this movie in the early 80s, and I thought of President Reagan! Neil Simon delivers good writing as usual, and The Hollies and Burt Bacharach make some good music!If The Life and Death of Peter Sellers is to be believed, Sellers and Ekland were having a miserable time during filming, which makes it more remarkable that this film works.