‘Totò, Peppino e la… Malafemmina’ or — The Funniest Letter Writing Scene Ever Filmed?
Brothers Antonio (Totò) and Peppino (Peppino De Filippo) Caponi live with their sister, Lucia (Vittoria Crispo), in the rural south of Italy. Lucia’s son, Gianni, is studying to become a doctor in Naples and his family couldn’t be prouder. One night fate brings Giovanni together with a beautiful and glamorous singer called Marisa and love soon blossoms. Marisa is to perform before the sophisticated high society of Milan so Giovanni decides to join her on this exciting trip.
However, when a malicious rumour gets back to the Caponi’s that Giovanni has actually ditched his studies to run off to Milan with a prostitute they decide to put aside their permanent feud with neighbouring landowner Mr. Halfhead and travel to Milan where they’ll convince Giovanni to return to his studies and to give up this… this… malafemmina!
And so Totò, Peppino and Lucia put on their thickest furs (Milan is way up in the north after all) and head to Milan in order to prevent shame and embarrassment being brought on the family. That’s something they’re perfectly capable of doing all by themselves, thank you very much.
‘Totò, Peppino e la… Malafemmina’ (1956) is regarded as one of the funniest Italian comedy films of the 1950’s which, considering just how many comedy classics Italy produced during that decade, is really saying something. But it’s for good reason as this is a consistently hilarious movie.
The comedy is primarily driven by Totò and Peppino as the Caponi brothers, with both the actors in total control of every physical and verbal tick, flourish and gesture and handled with seemingly effortless precision. As with all good comedy duos one is slightly smarter than the other, even if both hardly have a functioning brain cell between the two of them.
At one point Peppino is lamenting about the fact that all the money he has and is clasping in his hands is short by 300 lira. How can this be as he has been keeping it safety hidden away (although not so hidden that Totò doesn’t know where it is and keeps stealing from it)? His brother blithely informs him this is because of deflation so that’s why he is holding less money in his hands. It’s a great piece of twisted logic.
Another piece of insane, yet oddly logical, logic is when they ask Mr. Halfhead what Milan is like just before they head off. After all, these two brothers have never been anywhere so far north before. Mr. Halfhead tells them that Milan is cold and has fog, fog so thick that you can’t see a thing. “Then how can you see the fog?” Totò asks Mr. Halfhead. This means that when Totò and Peppino arrive in Milan and there is absolutely zero fog in sight they simply deduce that it’s so thick that they can’t see it. Makes total sense.
Although the film’s most famous scene is when the two brothers decide to write a letter to Marisa offering her money if she’ll leave their nephew for good. Totò dictates and Peppino writes down his brother’s wise words. It’s an extended sequence that’s shot in almost one continuous take and is a fantastic example of comedic timing, writing and performance as these two idiots come up with a letter that is so full of grammatical, linguistic, syntactical, logical and structural insanity that it’s utterly incomprehensible. Yet it’s also the way that Peppino furiously writes down Totò’s words that adds to the humour, his elbow frequently shooting out with cramp as he finds that he’s rapidly running out of paper to write everything down. It’s sublime.
This is capped off by a moment of glorious genius later on when Marisa finally reads the letter but the bombastically melodramatic music that plays over the top in an intentionally ironic way makes it seem as though she is having her heart broken and not reading a load of indecipherable nonsense. The letter might be full of complete gibberish but the underlying message is still clear and allows for scene that’s both gut-bustlingly funny and really quite moving.
The comedy might be very much Italian in nature but it’s readily identifiable with director Camillo Mastrocinque and his writers playing up to the differences between north and south, rich and poor, sophisticated and naive, aware and totally oblivious. Mastrocinque also does a great job of visually distinguishing these two worlds of high-class Milan and the Caponi’s more rustic existence by presenting the nightlife of the city with a fair amount of dazzle (along with some spectacular costumes) compared to the brothers shabby, ramshackled and chaotic deportment. These two worlds are like oil and water and can’t really exist or fully merge together without a form of destruction occurring.
‘Totò, Peppino e la… Malafemmina’ is just wonderful. It’s extremely funny, beautifully made and with comedic performances by actors at the top of their game. It’s fantastic.
