Arrivano i bersaglieri

HERE COME THERIFLEMEN kicks off with Don Tognazzi's family discussing over breakfast the conflicting 1870 regions in their merging Italy and you can keep up with the historical factions for about ten minutes before it is clear that these blood thirsty squabbles are being ridiculed.

The scenes of General La Marmora's/ Rigillo's Bersaglieri battling the Pope Pious IX/Bagni's Zouaves in the parks of Rome,are not particularly convincing but when Tognazzi whisks wounded Mezzogiorno off to his palace, which his teenage daughter Grifeo, with those fabulous white teeth, thinks is still embedded in the middle ages, the film hits it's stride, as it shifts into Feydeau style farce with a more tragic undertone. Sumptuously presented Ralli and Colli compete for control of that male world.

A companion piece to Magni's even more handsomely scored, set and costumed LA TOSCA and In NOME del POPOLO SOVRANO, offering more corrupt Churchmen, it makes us regret that the work of the writer-director and his accomplished associates has so little English language circulation.

The lack IMDb coverage on these is an indicator of the slack work of critics and showmen in the area or Italian popular film.