Operação San Genaro

This is your basic "gang of crooks plot and carry out a big heist" and as such, this one is pretty darn good.

The TUBI print (July 2025) is really sharp, and it is the Italian print, so nearly everything is dubbed into Italian. (important later) Best of all, the script makes sense - it moves the plot forward and takes the group to a number of neat locations.

Experienced director Dino Risi keeps the whole thing under control, and lets his cast shine.

The cast is quite a mixture: -Nino Manfredi (Italian, good looking, solid) -Mario Adorf (Swiss-German-Italian coproduction) overacting, but only pleasantly.

-Harry Guardino (Brooklyn) speaking Italian far more than English.

-Senta Berger (Austria) as another American character, but to help establish that, she breaks into English at odd points.

-The rest of the cast, people from everywhere, doing good work. In fact, the extras and background artists are very well directed (focused and appropriate for the scene).

Sure, it has its slow moments, but overall, this one is worth the two hours.

No offense. I did not find it entertaining. I recognized no parentage to the modern comedy nor the modern heist movie. Mediocre acting, no comedic timing, light on facial expressions, badly dubbed, and no subtitles.

If you watched the movie without audio, you wouldn't be able to tell what genre it is. However, one may be able to appreciate it for it's intrinsic value if you take into consideration the limitations of the industry then, movie tropes and conventions of the time, historical context and have familiarity with Neapolitan culture from other sources. Because instead of being a lighthearted and faithful representation of Neapolitan culture it represents the state of Italian filmmaking of the time.

In short, a relic. destined to remain in it's time capsule. Inaccessible without Italian fluency, barely comprehensible if you don-t have familiarity with Neapolitan language as some of the humour relies on it. This movie is to be taken out as an object of study

Still good 51 years after. We got Toto, Nino Manfredi, Mario Adorf, 3 great great comic actors. Plus Senta Berger, young and sexy, Claudine Auger, also young and very sexy (her best role from all), Harry Guardino. Toto, which was one of greatest comic actors ever, has just a small part. Manfredi and Adorf, other two huge comics, not only of the Italian cinema but also international (mostly Adorf who is still alive), they have more consistent roles.

One of the funniest films I've seen, it's, at its essence, the classic story of a perfect robbery plan gone wrong in the Italian way, a bit like "I Soliti ignoti" ("Rufufú" for the Spaniards). Indeed it's an impressive meeting of Italian artists: Dino Risi was known for his optimistic realistic films, and the cast includes the great comedian Totó. And it delivers even better than it appears.

A pair of Americans want to do the greatest robbery: the treasure of San Genaro, in Napoli. But, Christ, these are the jewels of a saint, and they must convince religious and a bit superstitious "professionals" to do the job. The fun are spread everywhere: the characters and their acts are the classic Risi people, but there are very good slapstick gags, action parts, and an absurd but somewhat restrained sense of humor that carries the film pretty well. Believe me: with some parts in the theft I bursted out laughing as very few times I've had (some Hawks, some Wilder, some Sturges), and I can recall lively many twists and still laugh at them.

If you come across this movie, please don't miss it. One overlooked one to discover.

This appears like a superficial farce full of slapstick and comedy situations of increasingly ridiculous complications, but it is much more than that. Also, not only is it an extensive and warm exposure of the Napolitan style of life and its very original mentality with great variations, but above all a very human approach to this kind of life. Of course, it's a triumphant comedy but with dark undertones. The one who spoils the entertainment is Harry Guardian as Jack, who doesn't fit in at all, can't understand the Napolitan mentality and style of life and seems to deliberately make a bad actor, but the story turns logic, and he gets his just reward. Senta Berger is something similar, but she is closer and more familiar with the Italian style, she fits in even as the rather cheap slut she is under all her elegance, but also she gets her just reward. They all do, and that's the wonder and point of this sparkling film, which gets better all the time as the plot thickens in constantly wrong directions. In brief, it's classical hilarious entertainment with some very wise indications by the finger of both fortune and fate. You get disgusted by the torpid enterprise, but you learn something on the way and end up the wiser from this awesome experience of not only laughters on the way.

Of course, if you are Italian or understand Italian and even the Napolitan dialect, the film will be doubly entertaining, because if you don't you will not understand everything, since much is untranslatable.