I had never watched this because I only owned it in French without subtitles (though it's been shown several times on Italian TV over the years) but did catch the inferior first sequel dubbed in English; to be honest, I'm not particularly interested in checking out the Americanized version even after acquainting myself with the original (soon after co-star Michel Serrault's passing).
The film is well acted (by Serrault, Ugo Tognazzi and Michel Galabru) and very funny, though no masterpiece; it seems surprising now that a 'vulgar' farce would receive an Oscar nomination for Best Direction that said, there's no denying its originality and style and, in any case, LA CAGE AUX FOLLES epitomized the 'alternative' gay lifestyle and immediately became the prototype of such films.
To my mind, the two best gags are: Tognazzi showing his manliness by picking on a dwarf for an offence directed at his lover Serrault (with the little man nonchalantly pointing to the big guy behind him as the real culprit), and the homosexual couple's black manservant (similarly inclined) bursting into laughter at seeing Serrault trying to pass himself off as Tognazzi's wife: the latter's son by a chance encounter is getting hitched and has brought his fiancé to meet the 'family' the trouble is that the girl's father, Galabru, happens to be an MP with a party dedicated to preserving Moral Order! Unfortunately, the film's ending the celebration of the wedding (following the fracas at the nightclub which, predictably, sees Galabru in drag) is rushed and fairly lame when compared to what has gone on before.
I know the last entry in the series wasn't very good and, really, this should have been left as a one-off; incidentally, Tognazzi made another popular sequence of comedies around this same time (all of which I still have in my 'unwatched VHS' pile) AMICI MIEI which Pietro Germi initiated but Mario Monicelli took over after the latter's death, and with the third and final outing helmed by Nanni Loy.
The film is well acted (by Serrault, Ugo Tognazzi and Michel Galabru) and very funny, though no masterpiece; it seems surprising now that a 'vulgar' farce would receive an Oscar nomination for Best Direction that said, there's no denying its originality and style and, in any case, LA CAGE AUX FOLLES epitomized the 'alternative' gay lifestyle and immediately became the prototype of such films.
To my mind, the two best gags are: Tognazzi showing his manliness by picking on a dwarf for an offence directed at his lover Serrault (with the little man nonchalantly pointing to the big guy behind him as the real culprit), and the homosexual couple's black manservant (similarly inclined) bursting into laughter at seeing Serrault trying to pass himself off as Tognazzi's wife: the latter's son by a chance encounter is getting hitched and has brought his fiancé to meet the 'family' the trouble is that the girl's father, Galabru, happens to be an MP with a party dedicated to preserving Moral Order! Unfortunately, the film's ending the celebration of the wedding (following the fracas at the nightclub which, predictably, sees Galabru in drag) is rushed and fairly lame when compared to what has gone on before.
I know the last entry in the series wasn't very good and, really, this should have been left as a one-off; incidentally, Tognazzi made another popular sequence of comedies around this same time (all of which I still have in my 'unwatched VHS' pile) AMICI MIEI which Pietro Germi initiated but Mario Monicelli took over after the latter's death, and with the third and final outing helmed by Nanni Loy.