‘Totò Le Mokò’ or — Funnier Than ‘The Godfather Part III’?

Notorious mob boss Pépé le Moko rules the Casbah through his terrifying air of mystique, yet when he is brutally gunned down his gang, now leaderless and lost, decide they need another fearless le Moko to take his place. They track down Pépé’s only surviving relative, Totò Le Mokò (Totò), a one-man band from Naples who assumes their offer of travelling to Algeria to lead an outfit of men is actually an invitation to become the conductor of the local orchestra.

Needless to say, once Totò arrives in the Casbah and realises that he is now expected to fill the shoes of a ruthless gangster, hilarity ensues.

And the good news is that hilarity does, indeed, ensue because although ‘Totò Le Mokò’ (1949) is no masterpiece it’s an incredibly funny and fast paced comedy that’s the perfect vehicle for Totò to demonstrate his finely honed physical humour. It’s a style of physical comedy that could easily become grating but Totò always keeps his animated flourishes, gestures, ticks and movements pertinent and germane to whatever activity he’s engaged in, so it never descends into a series of tiresome, attention seeking spasmodic explosions.

Totò really gets the chance to show all this off when he fully embraces his role as the new Pépé, something made even funnier by the fact that with his slightly too big suit, spiked hair and mob boss swagger he looks exactly like Al Pacino’s Michael Corleone in ‘The Godfather Part III’ (1990), the main difference being this film’s vastly more entertaining than ‘The Godfather Part III’.

It’s not all physical comedy, slapstick and eccentric mannerisms as the script was co-written by Furio Scarpelli so there’s also some nice verbal exchanges. One of the best is when rich and glamourous socialite, Viviane la Valance (the astonishingly gorgeous Gianna Maria Canale), who has visited the Casbah looking for exotic romance with dangerous men, seductively purrs in Totò’s ear –

“There’s nobody quite as electrifying as you in the entire world!”

To which he replies…

“Oh, really?! Have you ever tried sitting on a damp cat while it tickles your feet with its tail?”

“No.”

“Try it and you’ll see.”

There’s another nice scene when Viviane arrives to find Totò wearing a fez in his pyjamas as he doesn’t want anyone to know his hair, the source of his power (long story), has been cut off Samson style overnight.

“What are you doing with that hat on your head?”

“Totò Le Mokò takes his hat off for no one!”

“But you’re alone!”

“That’s exactly what I mean. I haven’t taken it off because there was no one around.”

Needless to say Totò’s time as this all powerful mob boss must ultimately come to an end which results in a very silly fight and Totò turning into… a one-man band version of Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man?!

‘Totò Le Mokò’ is a light, snappy, breezy parody of Julien Duvivier’s classic ‘Pépé le Moko’ (1937) and while it not possess much depth director Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia keeps everything moving and the action and energy constantly escalating. It might not quite be one of Totò’s very best but this is still an enjoyable and funny (sometimes VERY funny) movie, especially any time anyone says “Totò Le Mokò”.