Quartile rating: 7.5/10 · 1 rating
Antonio, Peppino and Lucia are three brothers who live in the country near Naples. Lucia's son, Gianni, goes to Naples to study medicine, but there he knows a ballet dancer. They fall in love and, when she goes to Milan, Gianni follows her. Informed of this and afraid that their nephew will stop studying, the three Caponi brothers leave for Milan to persuade Gianni to come back and continue studying and abandon the "Malafemmina" (bad girl).
Totò e Peppino divisi a Berlino's spiritual cousin, this beloved Italian comedy rests almost entirely on the extraordinary comic chemistry between Totò and Peppino De Filippo. The plot is a thin, formulaic pretext — country bumpkins chasing a city temptress — but it serves as scaffolding for some of Italian cinema's most celebrated comedic set pieces, including the iconic dictated letter scene. Acting earns a 4 squarely on the strength of Totò's genius physical comedy and De Filippo's perfectly calibrated straight-man foiling. Cinematography is workmanlike and functional, nothing remarkable. Novelty gets a 3 because while the plot is conventional, the specific voice and execution of the Totò-De Filippo duo is genuinely singular and unmistakable. The ending resolves neatly but without particular distinction.