by Linda Kay
English Translation: The Best: A Story of Love and Knife
Directed by: Sergio Corbucci
This review contains a mild Kitty Carnage Warning for slightly rough handling!
Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains some spoilers for this film!
Synopsis: If The Godfather had been set in Rome in 1900 and veered frequently into comedy it might have resembled this film more closely. Fishseller Nino ‘Er Più’ Patroni (Adriano Celentano) has just been released from prison and learns his rival, butcher Augustarello Di Lorenzo (Gianni Macchia), was responsible for his incarceration. Their feud will inevitably lead to bloodshed unless Nino’s love interest, Rosa (Claudia Mori), can stop them.
Cat Burglar (Scene Stealer): Slinking through the movie is the despicable town squealer everyone refers to as ‘Il Cinese’ or the Chinese (Vittorio Caprioli) who also runs a pawn shop. The first time we see him in his shop he is apparently picking the fleas off a longhair tabby and white cat while an Old Garibaldian soldier (Enzo Maggio) tried to convince the Chinese to buy his red shirt.
Explaining that he was a drummer for Girabaldi, the old man starts pretending to drum which the Chinese puts a stop to, saying the noise is scaring his cat.
He only offers the poor man half a lira and is about to take the shirt when the Marshall (Romolo Valli) shows up and, being a patriot, intervenes, making sure that the Chinese not only gives the man half a lira but also lets him keep the shirt.
The Chinese complains, feeling he is being treated unfairly, but the Marshall comments on how filthy the shop is and claims he sees a fly, slapping the man’s face (this really does startle the poor cat!) As if this isn’t bad enough, the Chinese throws the cat down after the Marshall leaves.
At the start of a carnival, the children taunt the Chinese in his shop. The cat is lying nearby as he shouts back at the kids.
In an even later scene, the Chinese is listening to music on a gramophone while the cat lies inside the horn. He pokes at the cat a couple of times, first with his fingers then a top hat, before finding and taking interest in a gun.
When Nino and Augustarello’s brother head out to have a knife fight, Rosa is determined to stop them and goes to the Chinese’s shop to beg him to take the news of the fight to the police.
The Chinese is offended, pointing out that everyone condemns him for going to the police except when they need him to do so. He leers at Rosa as he strokes the cat, proposing that she give him a kiss in exchange.
Rosa says she will kiss him like a sister but he has other ideas and lifts his nightshirt, exposing himself. She runs off in disgust.
Final Mewsings: Cats cannot be responsible for the moral character of their owners.
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