Alberto Sordi is the sort of man who can always find a way to get along. When his reactionary uncle is mayor, he is a reactionary; when he wants to bed a socialist, he turns socialist; he seduces and weds a rich young woman who owns flour mills; when the Fascists take power, he's fine with that, and when Italy falls at the end of the Second World War, he turns communist, Christian Democrat or film producer as seems best to him for the moment,
Luigi Zampa's comedy about the affable and corrupt Sordi is, of course, a satire of the corrupt people who ran Italy, while high-minded people fought and eventually got their own way. Sordi's corruption is so complete, his ability to sound convincing at every stage, that he seems to be unaware of what a lout he is. His buffoonish idiocy is so complete that there is nothing to hate in him. It's a great comic performance that indicts the rapacity of the ruling classes in a manner that a who're obviously angry movie could not.
Luigi Zampa's comedy about the affable and corrupt Sordi is, of course, a satire of the corrupt people who ran Italy, while high-minded people fought and eventually got their own way. Sordi's corruption is so complete, his ability to sound convincing at every stage, that he seems to be unaware of what a lout he is. His buffoonish idiocy is so complete that there is nothing to hate in him. It's a great comic performance that indicts the rapacity of the ruling classes in a manner that a who're obviously angry movie could not.