Raphael (Marcello Mastroianni), a restaurant mandolin player with a limp, a father to support, and a lot of debt, accepts a job offered by his friend, Giardino, to play a serenade under an apartment window at the behest of a mysterious blonde. As he's playing, a man high up on a balcony is pushed to his death. The apartment belongs to a famous conductor who promises to help Raphael's musical career if he can find out who the blonde was so the musician pays a call on Giardino only to see him come sailing out the window. Raphael soon finds himself up to his neck in murder, gangsters, blackmail, and a long-ago crime dating back to World War II when he becomes involved with the maestro's daughter-in-law (Ornella Muti), a nurse at a nearby mental hospital...
Using the giallo genre and its conventions as background, this comedy is a showcase for the puppy dog persona of it's star, Marcello Mastroianni, who's never offscreen for a moment. With his mop of curly hair and Chaplinesque mustache, Raphael, a harried "everyman", is a sympathetic figure who unwittingly becomes embroiled in a mystery with beautiful women, a gay, and even a transvestite coming on to him at every opportunity. A typical comedy hero, Raphael's also the only character to come out on top at the end. If this film had been laughing at the darkness instead of in it, it might have made a fairly funny black comedy; the convoluted plot would have made a good giallo if played straight minus Mastoianni but, as it stands, this mildly amusing tale's laughs come from his character's reactions to what happens all around him. Typical situation: when Giardino yells to Raphael from his apartment, "I'll be right down!", he's pushed from his window and lands at the musician's feet. Mastroianni's leading lady, the breath-takingly beautiful Ornella Muti, makes a seductive heroine/femme fatale and Euro-babe Zeudi Araya is also on hand as an oversexed opera singer. International star Capucine has a small but pivotal role as a most attractive nun. In real life, Capucine killed herself by jumping from her apartment highrise. Giallo geeks are bound to be disappointed in GIALLO NAPOLETANO but Marcello Mastroianni's admirers should be pleased. Some nice Naples locations and Riz Ortolani's score aside, give me the following year's GIALLO A VENEZIA any day!
Defenestration as murder weapon was used in gialli a decade earlier in TRUMPET OF THE APOCALYPSE starring sex-kitten Romina Power.
Using the giallo genre and its conventions as background, this comedy is a showcase for the puppy dog persona of it's star, Marcello Mastroianni, who's never offscreen for a moment. With his mop of curly hair and Chaplinesque mustache, Raphael, a harried "everyman", is a sympathetic figure who unwittingly becomes embroiled in a mystery with beautiful women, a gay, and even a transvestite coming on to him at every opportunity. A typical comedy hero, Raphael's also the only character to come out on top at the end. If this film had been laughing at the darkness instead of in it, it might have made a fairly funny black comedy; the convoluted plot would have made a good giallo if played straight minus Mastoianni but, as it stands, this mildly amusing tale's laughs come from his character's reactions to what happens all around him. Typical situation: when Giardino yells to Raphael from his apartment, "I'll be right down!", he's pushed from his window and lands at the musician's feet. Mastroianni's leading lady, the breath-takingly beautiful Ornella Muti, makes a seductive heroine/femme fatale and Euro-babe Zeudi Araya is also on hand as an oversexed opera singer. International star Capucine has a small but pivotal role as a most attractive nun. In real life, Capucine killed herself by jumping from her apartment highrise. Giallo geeks are bound to be disappointed in GIALLO NAPOLETANO but Marcello Mastroianni's admirers should be pleased. Some nice Naples locations and Riz Ortolani's score aside, give me the following year's GIALLO A VENEZIA any day!
Defenestration as murder weapon was used in gialli a decade earlier in TRUMPET OF THE APOCALYPSE starring sex-kitten Romina Power.
