IL MONACO DI MONZA (1963)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *uncanny*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *comedy*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *sociological*

I've now watched two subtitled comedies starring Italian comedian Toto. I find his humor too dependent on the nuances of the Italian language, which may be a lot funnier to natives of his country.

Still, there's potential in this parody of a popular melodrama, THE NUN OF MONZA. Poor widowed cobbler Pasquale (Toto) has twelve kids to feed, but local officials try to tax every dime out of him. He sees that the local monks are always well fed, so he and a companion masquerade as monks, while the kids pretend to be their retinue. 

They happen across the castle of the Marquise Don Egidio (Nino Taranto). He's holding as captive his beautiful sister-in-law Florenza (Lisa Gastoni), and their dialogue implies that Egidio arranged for his brother's death in order that he could marry Florenza. However, at some point Florenza cohabited with a lover, Don Emanuel, and is now pregnant. Through her window Florenza sees the phony monks and sends them a message, promising riches for her rescue. The phonies insinuate themselves into the Marquise's confidence, who wants Pasquale to officiate over his wedding to Florenza. Pasquale informs Florenza of his true intentions and proceeds to find ways to stall the wedding, so that Egidio becomes increasingly irate. He mentions that he once punished a false friar by entombing him behind a wall in his dungeon.

Toto's antics get pretty tiresome, so that I welcomed it when Edigio pretended to be dead (even looking a little like a vampire at one point) in order to learn the monks' true intention. When he learns the truth, the evil Marquise has Pasquale and Florenza bound, each to opposing wall-slabs. Some sort of piston-device will drive the slabs together, crushing the two victims into one another and between the stone slabs-- which is certainly a novel take on the "moving wall" from Poe's "Pit and the Pendulum."

Pasquale's companion seeks help from a local convent, looking for Don Emanuel. Instead he finds the Don's sister Virginia (Moira Orfei), who is (or is pretending to be) the head nun of the convent. She rouses a dozen other nuns from the order, some or all of whom may be simply young women who took the veil to avoid the attentions of lusty Edigio. The nuns attack the castle, at one point trampling over three henchmen and reducing them (somehow) to skulls and bones. Then the martial monacas engage in battle with Edigio and his guards and beat them roundly, with Virginia both punching and swordfighting Edigio. Don Emanuel only shows up when all the fighting's done, and to Edigio's horror, he's almost the spitting image of Pasquale (naturally, he's also played by Toto).

Since I didn't find Toto that amusing, the high point for me is that for once Moira Orfei is in a period film where she's not playing a villain, gets some brief combat scenes, and even remains alive at story's end.