AFTER THE FOX didn’t fare well in 1966, dinged by reviewers and a let-down at the box office. Uneven caper farce/star vehicle/show biz satire sputters here and there and ultimately exhausts itself in a too frantic finish, but it’s frequently quite amusing and its overly harsh rep as a three-legged dog has been restored of late. The delights outweigh the debits. *

“Ehh…if only I could steal enough to become an honest man!”

Italian master thief and skilled impersonator ‘Aldo Vanucci’ (Peter Sellers) escapes from prison and with his inept but loyal crew (Paolo Stoppa, Mac Ronay, Tino Buazzelli) plots to retrieve a horde of gold scarpered from Egypt by ‘Okra’ (Akim Tamiroff), using a sleepy seaside town as a delivery point. Pursued by the cops, Aldo poses as famous film director ‘Federico Fabrizi’, fooling the movie-enamored locals of ‘Sevalio’ to act as extras in his new existentialist opus, and tricking legendary American screen idol ‘Tony Powell’ (Victor Mature) into playing the lead in the ‘artistic masterpiece’ his pretend director will create to mask the ship-delivered gold heist. Aldo’s younger sister ‘Gina’ (Britt Ekland), a struggling actress, is ‘cast’ as Tony’s leading lady, ‘Gina Romantica’.  The lifted loot approaches. So does Interpol.

Vittorio De Sica directed, and does a kidder cameo as himself, directing a Biblical epic from which Aldo and his bumblers swipe equipment. For his first feature film script Neil Simon was co-writing with frequent De Sica collaborator, the celebrated Cesare Zavattini. The sunny location work was done in Cairo, followed by Rome, Spoleto in Umbria (the Rocca Albornoziana Fortress as Aldo’s prison), and Ischia Island near Naples, with the town of Sant’ Angelo doubling as ‘Sevalio’. Maurice Binder whipped up one of the era’s ‘Pink Pantherish’ credit sequences, with a Hal David title tune sung by Sellers and The Hollies; Burt Bacharach gives the proceedings a comic “groovy 60’s”score.

Cutting a good ten minutes would’ve helped, as some bits feel forced, and the drawn out finale fizzles. As ‘Harry Granoff’,  Mature’s agent, the ordinarily on-target Martin Balsam shouts nonstop in the only lousy performance he ever gave; maybe he was directed to do so, but it grates. Otherwise, the breezy silliness is pretty funny (light years more than Sellers previous hit, the dreadful What’s New Pussycat?) and the star does some inspired mugging, especially when he’s masquerading as the director, a character satirizing the pretension airs of figures like Fellini and Antonioni. Ekland, 23 and halfway thru her marriage to Sellers, is charming, wigged brunette to ‘be’ Italian rather than Swedish. Tamiroff knocks it back; 65 in ’66, the old pro kept busy with seven movies and a guest shot on The Man From U.N.C.L.E. Those scenic locales are easy on the eyes, a mini-vacation. Getting the lion’s share of praise from critics, and clearly enjoying himself, Mature, 52, coaxed back on camera after five years of retirement, cheerfully kids his image and the ingrained idea of the pampered, vanity-driven Movie Star.

With Lando Buzzanca (as Sevalio’s flattered police chief, “Good morning!”), Lydia Brazzi (‘Mama Vanucci’), Maria Grazia Buccella (former Miss Italy, billed as ‘Bikini Girl’, providing an injection of La Dolce va-va-voom) and Maurice Denham. 103 minutes.

* Gifted as he was, Sellers insecure and domineering personality wreaked havoc on one production after another, and the shoot for this one had him quickly fighting with De Sica, and was marked by ugly public outbursts with Britt. Simon was dissatisfied trying to mesh writing styles and New Yawk v. Italia comic concepts with (the much more experienced) Zavattini. Made for $3,000,000, the US boxoffice of $5,700,000 and 50th place was considered a flop and along with the embarrassment of Casino Royale (a box office hit nonetheless) it started a downhill trend for Sellers that continued with The Bobo (a major dud, again with beleaguered Britt and battling  the director and everyone else) and The Party, lasting until he resurrected the ‘Pink Panther’ pix in 1975. All considered, the underrated After The Fox is an enjoyable romp.