After the Fox

Outside of Cairo, criminal mastermind Okra hijacks $3 million in gold bullion. The thieves now need a way to smuggle the two tons of gold into Europe. Aldo Vanucci, a master of disguise known as The Fox, is one of the few men who can handle the assignment, but he is in prison, and reluctant to accept the job for fear of disgracing his mother and young sister Gina. When his three sidekicks inform him that Gina does not always come home after school, an enraged, overprotective Vanucci vows to escape. He impersonates the prison doctor and flees to Rome with the aid of his gang. There, his mother tells him Gina is working on the street, which Vanucci takes to mean prostitution. But Gina is merely acting in a low-budget film shooting on the Via Veneto. Vanucci realizes the smuggling job will improve his family's life. He contacts Okra and agrees to smuggle the gold into Italy for half of the take. After watching a crowd mob over-the-hill American matinée idol Tony Powell, it strikes Vanucci that movie stars and film crews are idolized and have free rein in society. This insight forms the basis of his plan. Posing as Italian neo-realist director Federico Fabrizi, he plots to bring the gold ashore as a scene in an avant-garde film. To give the picture legitimacy, he cons Powell to star in the film, which is blatantly titled The Gold of Cairo (a play on De Sica's 1954 film The Gold of Naples). Powell's agent, Harry, is wary of Fabrizi, but his vain client wants to do the film. Fabrizi casts Gina in the film and enlists the starstruck population of Sevalio, a tiny fishing village, to unload the shipment. But when the boat carrying the gold is delayed, Fabrizi must improvise scenes for his phony film to maintain the ruse. The ship finally arrives, and the townspeople unload the gold, but Okra double-crosses Vanucci and drives off with the loot. A slapstick car chase ensues and Okra, Vanucci and the police crash into each other. Vanucci, Tony, Gina, Okra and the villagers are accused of smuggling contraband. Vanucci's "film" is shown as evidence in court, where a film critic proclaims the disjointed footage a masterpiece. Vanucci confesses his guilt, exonerating the villagers, but vows to escape prison again. He does so by impersonating the prison doctor again, but when he attempts to remove his fake beard, Vanucci discovers the beard is real and exclaims, "The wrong man has escaped!" ==Cast==

This was Neil Simon's first screenplay; at that time, he had three hit shows running on Broadway — Little Me, Barefoot in the Park and The Odd Couple. Simon originally wanted to write a spoof of art-house films such as Last Year at Marienbad and the Michelangelo Antonioni films, but the story evolved into the idea of a film-within-a-film. In his 1996 memoir Rewrites, Simon recalled that an agent suggested Peter Sellers for the lead, while Simon preferred casting "an authentic Italian" such as Marcello Mastroianni or Vittorio Gassman. Sellers loved the script and asked Vittorio De Sica to direct. Mature also revealed that he based Tony Powell partially on De Sica "... plus a lot of egotism, and DeMille, too — that bit with the fellow following him around with the chair all the time." Mature told the Chicago Tribune: "I not only enjoyed doing the film, but it gave me the urge to get back into pictures. They were an exciting group of people to work with." According to Simon, Sellers demanded that his wife Britt Ekland be cast as Gina, the Fox's sister. Ekland's Nordic looks and accent were wrong for the role, but to keep Sellers happy, De Sica acquiesced. Simon recalled that Ekland worked hard on the film. The voices and accents of the Italian comic actors were dubbed in London, mainly by Robert Rietti, and edited in Rome by Malcolm Cooke, who had been a post-sync dialogue editor on Lawrence of Arabia. Simon summed up his opinion of the film: "[T]o give the picture its due, it was funny in spots, innovative in its plot, and was well-intentioned. But a hit picture? Uh-uh ... Still today, After the Fox remains a cult favorite." Burt Bacharach composed the score and cowrote the title song with lyricist Hal David. For the Italian release, the score was composed by Piero Piccioni. The title song "After the Fox" was recorded by the Hollies with Sellers in August 1966 and released by United Artists as a single (b/w "The Fox-Trot"). ==Release==

After the Fox was released in Great Britain, Italy and the United States in December 1966. ==Influence==

The scene in which Okra speaks to Aldo through the beautiful Maria Grazia Buccella inspired a similar scene in Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002), in which Austin Powers talks to Foxxy Cleopatra through the Nathan Lane character. ==Reception and legacy==

The film was poorly received when it was released and earned mixed reviews. New York Times critic Bosley Crowther wrote: "It's pretty much of a mess, this picture. Yes, you'd think it was done by amateurs." Billboard called the film "a series of fun-filled satires ... guaranteed for laughs" and thought that Sellers was "at his droll best" and Mature "hilarious." Monthly Film Bulletin wrote, "Continuing the De Sica's decline of recent years, this witless comedy of incompetent crooks and excitable Italians never even begins to get off the ground" and called Seller's performance "self-indulgent," but singled out Mature as "amusing and touching." On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 78% approval rating with an average rating of 5.9 out of 10, based on reviews from 9 critics. The film has some kinship with ''What's New Pussycat?, which was released the previous year and also starred Sellers. That film was the first written by Woody Allen, who, like Neil Simon, had been a staff writer for Sid Caesar. Even the advertising tagline on the posters and trailer for After The Fox'' proclaimed, "You Caught The Pussycat ... Now Chase The Fox!". The poster art for both films was illustrated by Frank Frazetta. It has since gained a cult following for its numerous in-jokes skewering movie stars, starstruck audiences, pretentious film critics and pompous directors, including Cecil B. DeMille, Federico Fellini, Michelangelo Antonioni and De Sica. The film was remade in 2010 in Hindi as Tees Maar Khan. ==See also==