''Five Golden Hours'' is a 1961 Italian-British comedy film directed by

Mario Zampi Mario Zampi (1 November 19032 December 1963) was an Italian film producer and director. A co-founder of Two Cities Films, a British production company, he is most closely associated with British comedies of the 1950s. Biography Zampi began his ca ...

and written by Hans Wilhelm, starring

Ernie Kovacs Ernest Edward Kovacs (January 23, 1919 – January 13, 1962) was a Hungarian-American comedian, actor, and writer. Kovacs's visually experimental and often spontaneous comedic style influenced numerous television comedy programs for years afte ...

, Cyd Charisse and

George Sanders George Henry Sanders (3 July 1906 – 25 April 1972) was a British actor and singer whose career spanned over 40 years. His heavy, upper-class English accent and smooth, bass voice often led him to be cast as sophisticated but villainous chara ...

, and featuring

Dennis Price Dennistoun Franklyn John Rose Price (23 June 1915 – 6 October 1973) was an English actor, best remembered for his role as Louis Mazzini in the film ''Kind Hearts and Coronets'' (1949) and for his portrayal of the omnicompetent valet Jeeves ...

and

John Le Mesurier John Le Mesurier (, born John Elton Le Mesurier Halliley; 5 April 191215 November 1983) was an English actor. He is perhaps best remembered for his comedic role as Sergeant Arthur Wilson in the BBC television situation ...

Plot

Aldo Bondi (Kovacs) is a professional pallbearer and mourner in Rome who lives well off the extravagant gifts given to him by the rich widows he comforts. When he falls for the supposedly penniless Baroness Sandra (Charisse) – who is actually a rich "black widow" whose husbands all die – he concocts a

Ponzi scheme A Ponzi scheme (, ) is a form of fraud that lures investors and pays profits to earlier investors with funds from more recent investors. Named after Italian businessman Charles Ponzi, the scheme leads victims to believe that profits are comi ...

to bilk three widows by taking money from them, telling them that he will invest it during the "five golden hours" between the closing of the stock exchange in Rome, and the opening of the

New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed co ...

. However, the Baroness absconds with the cash, leaving Bondi in hock to the widows. He attempts to kill them, but the scheme fails and he pretends to have gone insane. In the sanatarium, his roommate is another debtor feigning madness, Mr. Bing (Sanders). One of the three widows dies, leaving Bondi a fortune, which he can only have if he continues to be insane, otherwise the inheritance is to go to a monastery – so Bondi makes a deal with the brothers to split the money. He returns to Rome, where Mr. Bing makes contact with Baroness Sandra and, for a fee, tells her that Bondi is now rich. Sandra and Bondi get married, and soon he is her seventh dead husband.

Cast

as Aldo Bondi * Cyd Charisse as Baroness Sandra *

as Mr. Bing *

Kay Hammond Dorothy Katherine Standing, Lady Clements (18 February 1909 – 4 May 1980), known professionally as Kay Hammond, was an English stage and film actress. Family Kay Hammond was born in London, England as Dorothy Katherine Standing, the daught ...

as Martha *

as Raphael *

Clelia Matania Clelia Matania (28 March 1918 – 14 October 1981) was an Italian film and voice actress. Life and career Born in London, the daughter of the Capri-born naturalized Briton painter Fortunino Matania (best known as Saturnino), Matania attended th ...

as Rosalia *

as Doctor Alfieri *

Finlay Currie William Finlay Currie (20 January 1878 – 9 May 1968) was a Scottish actor of stage, screen, and television.McFarlane, Brian (28 February 2014). ''The Encyclopedia of British Film: Fourth edition''. Oxford University Press. pp. 175-176; He re ...

as Father Superior *

Reginald Beckwith William Reginald Beckwith (2 November 190826 June 1965) was an English film and television actor, who made over one hundred film and television appearances in his career. He died of a heart attack aged 56. Beckwith was also a film critic and ...

as Brother Geronimo * Avice Landone as Beatrice *

Sydney Tafler Sydney Tafler (31 July 1916 – 8 November 1979) was an English actor who after having started his career on stage, was best remembered for numerous appearances in films and television from the 1940s to the 1970s. Personal life Tafler was bor ...

as Alfredo * Martin Benson as Enrico * Bruno Barnabe as Cesare *

Ron Moody Ron Moody (born Ronald Moodnick; 8 January 1924 – 11 June 2015) was an English actor, composer, singer and writer. He was best known for his portrayal of Fagin in ''Oliver!'' (1968) and its 1983 Broadway revival. Moody earned a Golden Globe ...

as Gabrielle *

Leonard Sachs Leonard Meyer Sachs (26 September 1909 – 15 June 1990) was a South African-born British actor. Life and career Sachs was born in the town of Roodepoort, in the then Transvaal Colony, present day South Africa. He was Jewish. He emigrated to ...

as Mr. Morini

Production

''Five Golden Hours'' was filmed in two versions, one for English-language release, and another, released as ''Cinque ore in contanti'', for Italian consumption. In the Italian version, some of the smaller roles were taken by Italian actors. Location shooting for the film took place in Bolzano, Italy and the surrounding area. Kovacs cited the picture as his favorite among his own films. The film was the last directed by Mario Zampi.

Reception

The movie received generally tepid reviews. The one in ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' complained that "too much onus is flung on the shoulders of Ernie Kovacs, a talented comedian, but one who is more acceptable in smaller doses."Rico, Diana. ''Kovacsland''. San Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1990. Retrieved January 25, 2019 ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

Howard Thompson added that " Alec Guinness and a subtle director could have turned (the film) into gold," but "hammered brass is what we get, unfortunately." He was critical of the two American stars, saying that Kovacs was "sniggering self-consciousness" while Charisse was "merely wooden."Thompson, Howard. "'Five Golden Hours' and 'Mr. Sardonicus' in Multiple Openings," ''The New York Times'', Thursday, October 19, 1961.
Retrieved January 24, 2019 ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...

'' presented a more favorable evaluation, calling it "a wicked, happy little surprise," "an excellent black joke of a sort rare in the British cinema" and that "most importantly, it has Ernie Kovacs, a player whose comic vitality hasn't been staled."

Novelization

In anticipation of the film's release, Digit Books of London (the paperback imprint of Brown, Watson Limited) published a novelization of the screenplay. While the cover and title page say "Adapted from the screenplay by Hans Wilhelm," the novelist is not credited.

References

Notes

External links

* * * {{Mario Zampi 1961 films Italian comedy films English-language Italian films 1961 comedy films British black-and-white films Films about con artists Films set in Italy Columbia Pictures films British multilingual films 1960s multilingual films Films shot at MGM-British Studios 1960s English-language films 1960s Italian films English-language comedy films