In all Italian cinema, this is the episode that owes the most to Pirandello (without even adaptating Pirandello), a nonsensical reflection on the double, the misinterpretation and ambiguity of appearance. Going back to a sketch developed for the revue, C’era una volta il mondo, even if it was softened so as not to annoy the strict cinema (in the theatre version Totò threw the respectable Trombetta out of a window so that he could enjoy Barzizza’s charms alone), Prince Antonio de Curtis destroyed the myth of neorealism in a few minutes, the arrogance of the politics and the pomposity of the artistic creation. But before the jokes that became a part of the Italian linguistic heritage (“I am a man of the world, I did three year’s military service in Cuneo” and “I’ve here it up to had”) and before the revenge on the clique (“do me a favour!”), there is also the perfect way of making an entrance, telling jokes, making faces. If you are looking for humour with perfect timing in Italian cinema, this is it…

                                                                                                               Paolo Mereghetti