''Count Max'' (Italian:''Il conte Max'') is a 1957 Italian-Spanish

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

directed by Giorgio Bianchi and starring

Alberto Sordi Alberto Sordi (15 June 1920 – 24 February 2003) was an Italian actor, voice actor, singer, comedian, director and screenwriter. Early life Born in Rome to a schoolteacher and a musician and the last of five children, Sordi was named in hon ...

Vittorio De Sica Vittorio De Sica ( , ; 7 July 1901 – 13 November 1974) was an Italian film director and actor, a leading figure in the neorealist movement. Four of the films he directed won Academy Awards: ''Sciuscià'' and ''Bicycle Thieves'' (honorary) ...

and

Anne Vernon Anne Vernon (born Édith Antoinette Alexandrine Vignaud; born 7 January 1924) is a French actress. She appeared in 40 films between 1948 and 1970, including three films that were entered into the main competition at the Cannes Film Festival. She ...

. It is a remake of the 1937 film ''

Il signor Max ''Il Signor Max'' is a 1937 Italian " white-telephones" comedy film directed by Mario Camerini and starring Vittorio De Sica and Assia Noris. Plot Gianni is a poor, young newspaper salesman in Rome. However, during his vacations he poses as Count ...

'' in which De Sica had played the title role. This film was itself remade in 1991. A

newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...

vendor In a supply chain, a vendor, supplier, provider or a seller, is an enterprise that contributes goods or services. Generally, a supply chain vendor manufactures inventory/stock items and sells them to the next link in the chain. Today, these terms ...

masquerades as a

count Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York: ...

, falling in with a

baroness Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often Hereditary title, hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher th ...

and her wealthy, aristocratic friends. He believes he is love with her, but comes to realize he has more in common with her

maid A maid, or housemaid or maidservant, is a female domestic worker. In the Victorian era domestic service was the second largest category of employment in England and Wales, after agricultural work. In developed Western nations, full-time maids ...

. The film's

art direction Art director is the title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supervise and unify the visi ...

was by

Flavio Mogherini Flavio Mogherini (25 March 1922 – 23 April 1994) was an Italian production designer, art director and film director. His career spanned from 1947 to 1994. His daughter Federica Mogherini was High Representative of the Union for Foreign A ...

Plot

Alberto Boccetti, Roman newsagent in Via Veneto, is mistaken for Count Max Orsini Varaldo, a penniless nobleman and scrounger, while on vacation in Cortina (where he went instead of going on vacation to the village of Capracotta as desired by his uncle). Here he meets Baroness Elena di Villombrosa, who invites him to join the company of nobles, headed to Seville, but also meets their housekeeper Lauretta. In Seville, after contracting debts to give orchids to the baroness, he is repatriated to Italy. Some time later, in Rome, while working in the newsstand, he meets Lauretta who is very surprised by the similarity between Alberto and Count Max. A series of transformations, in which Alberto wears the clothes of the count, who courts the baroness, and those of the newsagent, who make Lauretta suspicious, lead him to have to choose between living a rich life but not his own and another more normal one that belongs to him. The decision comes when he discovers the arrogant and humiliating way in which the nobles treat the beautiful and sweet Lauretta.

Cast

as Alberto Boccetti *

as Conte Max Orsini Varaldo *

as Baroness Elena di Villombrosa * Susana Canales as Lauretta Campo *

Tina Pica Tina Pica (31 March 1884 – 15 August 1968) was an Italian supporting actress who played character roles on stage. Her film debut came in 1935 with ''The Three-Cornered Hat''. In the 1950s, she became a celebrity thanks to her role as Caramel ...

as La zia * Juan Calvo as Lo zio Giovanni * Jacinto San Emeterio as Don Juan de Figueroa * Diletta D'Andrea as Pucci - sorella di Elena *

Mino Doro Mino Doro (6 May 1903 – 13 April 1992) was an Italian actor who appeared in more than a hundred films between 1932 and 1970. Doro generally played supporting and character roles. He appeared as a blackshirt in the 1934 Fascist propaganda fi ...

as Maj. Guido Amadori * Piero Stucchi as Giovanni Sampieri - 'Meme' * Antonella Florio as Patrizia * Alberto Craig as Stefano * Edy Biagetti as Gianluca * Nani Colombo as Nené * Edith Jost as La contessa * Luigi Mondello * Julio Riscal as Paolino *

Marco Tulli Marco Tulli (20 November 1920 – 20 March 1982) was an Italian character actor, probably best known in the role of "Smilzo" in the Don Camillo film series. Born in Rome, Tulli debuted as actor while he was still a university student, at the end ...

as Il sarto

References

Bibliography

* Rémi Fournier Lanzoni.''Comedy Italian style: the golden age of Italian film comedies''. Continuum, 2008.

External links

* 1957 films Spanish comedy films Italian comedy films 1950s Italian-language films Films directed by Giorgio Bianchi Remakes of Italian films Films set in Italy Films set in Spain Films scored by Angelo Francesco Lavagnino 1950s Italian films 1950s Spanish films {{1950s-Spain-film-stub