Totò e i re di Roma (1952) User Reviews

What is the largest lake in Italy?

[petra_ste · 6/10 · 25 May 2007]

Totò e i Re di Roma is a bittersweet comedy with a more illustrious pedigree than is immediately obvious: some developments are taken from Chekhov (The Death of a Government Clerk) and a short scene comes straight from Pirandello (Da Sé).

Totò performs his usual magic; Alberto Sordi, in one of his first major roles, gives an hilarious performance as an unbearably obnoxious professor. Reportedly, Totò himself was impressed by his young colleague, and their famous duet during a disastrous school exam is the movie's highlight.

6.5/10

What Can A Poor Man Do?

[boblipton · 6/10 · 17 May 2023]

Toto has spent thirty years as a bureaucrat in the Roman archives, and it comes to a head, worrying about promotions, titles, inflation that has made him a poor man, five daughters who have mad him poorer yet. Now he has spit by accident on the head of the archives, and every time he tries to apologize it only gets worse. Now, what with parrots killed during the War, andtrying to get his elementary school diploma without knowing what the largest lake in Italy is, his dreams of winning the lottery and taking care of his family come down to hoping that he can get the winning lottery number in Heaven.

It's a Toto vehicle that almost didn't past the censors because it mocked the government. Toto puts most of his verbal and physical mugging into what looks like a very loose burlesque of Chekhov's "The Death of a Government Clerk." He transforms a sad tale of impenetrable bureaucracy into a slapstick romp.