Review of Fracchia la belva umana

). It's certainly good to see all the appreciative reviews for this really inventive comedy which brilliantly combines highly inventive slapstick with no-holds-barred satire. Filmed on an amazingly expensive and expansive scale with more extra players than Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer packed into Quo Vadis, the frenetic pace never lets up from go to whoa. As usual, the stumblebum police (led here by the risibly incompetent Commissario Auricchio, brilliantly played by Lino Banfi) cop most of the laughs, but bank managers, company directors, movie-makers, healthy lifestylers, army generals, and over-possessive mothers (amongst many others) also come in for a drubbing. In the title role, or rather roles, Paolo Villaggio is at the top of his form. He receives great support from Anna Mazzamauro and the guy who plays Banfi's assistant (whose expressions are priceless). Neri Parenti is to be congratulated on his frenetic direction which rarely over-strains credulity – except perhaps in the overlong climax and the somewhat too satirical final scene in which some incompetent heavenly clerk is mercilessly lampooned.