''What Ever Happened to Baby Toto?'' ( it, Che fine ha fatto Totò Baby?) is a

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarch ...

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

black 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 olde ...

written and directed by

Ottavio Alessi Ottavio Alessi (1 January 1919 - 28 April 1978) was an Italian screenwriter, producer and film director. Life and career Born in Cammarata, Province of Agrigento, Alessi entered the film industry in 1940 as an assistant director. In 1945 he st ...

, starring

Totò Antonio Griffo Focas Flavio Angelo Ducas Comneno Porfirogenito Gagliardi de Curtis di Bisanzio (15 February 1898 – 15 April 1967), best known by his stage name Totò (), or simply as Antonio de Curtis, and nicknamed ''il Principe della risata ...

. It is a parody of

Robert Aldrich Robert Burgess Aldrich (August 9, 1918 – December 5, 1983) was an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. His notable credits include '' Vera Cruz'' (1954), ''Kiss Me Deadly'' (1955), ''The Big Knife'' (1955), '' Autumn L ...

's '' What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?''.

Plot

A pair of step brothers, Totò Baby and Pietro, make a living stealing suitcases at the Termini Station in Rome. They discover within a stolen piece of luggage a corpse. Trying to get rid of the incriminating evidence, they mistakenly swap the suitcase with a German hitchhiker. Forced to retrieve the "corpus delicti" they are discovered by Mischa, a Count who is hosting the beautiful foreign tourists. He decides to blackmail the step brothers, asking for their assassination of his rich wife, in exchange for his silence with the police. After the death of the woman (who loses her life as a result of a fright), Totò Baby becomes a sadistic serial killer as he loses all inhibition after starting to eat by mistake marijuana as if it were lettuce. He kills the Count and more people, including a young postman which is then walled up inside Misha's villa. He then escapes and forces his brother to follow him. He drags him to the beach and seems about to leave him buried alive in the sand with broken legs, but gets recognized and arrested by chance by the police. He ends up committed in an institute for the criminally insane, where he spends his time typing his autobiography on an imaginary typewriter.

Cast

as Baby Toto / Baby Toto's father *

Pietro De Vico Pietro De Vico (1 February 1911 – 10 December 1999) was an Italian film actor. He appeared in 70 films between 1948 and 1991. He was born in Naples, and died in Rome. He was married, from 1937 until his death in 1999, to actress Anna Campo ...

as Pietro *

Mischa Auer Mischa Auer (born Mikhail Semyonovich Unkovsky (Михаил Семёнович Унковский; 17 November 1905 – 5 March 1967) was a Russians, Russian-born American actor who moved to Hollywood in the late 1920s. He first appeared in fi ...

as Mischa (The Count) * Alvaro Alvisi as Police Commissioner *

Ivy Holzer ''Hedera'', commonly called ivy (plural ivies), is a genus of 12–15 species of evergreen climbing or ground-creeping woody plants in the family Araliaceae, native to western, central and southern Europe, Macaronesia, northwestern Africa and ...

as Inga * Alicia Brandet as Helga *

Gina Mascetti Gina Mascetti (1911-1995) was an Italian film actress. A character actress, she appeared in a number of comedy films notably as Alberto Sordi's wife in the ''The White Sheik'' (1952). The same year she also featured in the neorealist drama ''Two ...

as Mischa's wife *

Mario Castellani Mario Castellani (24 November 190625 April 1978) was an Italian comic actor, best known as the sidekick of famous comic actor Antonio De Curtis (Totò). He appeared with the latter in all his major movies, as well as many of Totò's theatre pro ...

as The director of the orphanage *

Olimpia Cavalli Olimpia Cavalli (30 August 1930 – 29 March 2012) was an Italian actress. Born in Cadeo, she was mainly active between the late fifties and mid-sixties. After being a star on avanspettacolo alongside Erminio Macario, she made her film debut i ...

as Baby Toto's stepmother *

Peppino De Martino Peppino may refer to: Given name: * Peppino D'Agostino, Italian guitarist *Peppino De Filippo (1903–1980), Italian actor *Peppino di Capri (born 1939), Italian popular music singer, songwriter and pianist *Peppino Gagliardi (born 1940), Itali ...

as The

Maresciallo The Italian military rank of ''maresciallo'' (; marshal) is classified as a "sub-officer" and is the highest rank of non-commissioned officer in the Italian Armed Forces, higher than the rank of sergeant but lower than that of ensign/second lieuten ...

Franco Ressel Franco Ressel (8 February 1925 – 30 April 1985) was an Italian film actor. He appeared in more than 120 films between 1961 and 1985. He was born in Naples, Italy and died in Rome, Italy. Selected filmography * ''La cento chilometri'' (19 ...

as The American Official *

Giuseppe Tosi Giuseppe "Beppe" Tosi (25 May 1916 – 10 July 1981) was an Italian discus thrower. He won silver medal at the 1946, 1950 and 1954 European championships and 1948 Olympics, every time beaten by the teammate Adolfo Consolini. At the 1952 Olympic ...

as tall man *

Renato Montalbano Renato Montalbano (born 17 May 1931) is an Italian character actor. Life and career Born in Catania, in 1955 Montalbano abandoned his university studies in medicine to attend at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome, from which he ...

as The young postman

References

External links

* 1964 films 1960s black comedy films 1960s parody films Italian parody films Italian black comedy films Films set in Rome Films shot in Rome Films with screenplays by Giovanni Grimaldi 1964 comedy films 1964 drama films 1960s Italian-language films 1960s Italian films {{1960s-Italy-comedy-film-stub