Gianni Agus plays bank manager Giuseppe Marrone who is using vasts amounts of money to further his own career. This has resulted in him living in a luxurious villa with a gorgeous young mistress (Licinia Lentini, who lights up the screen even though she's only in the film for two or three minutes all together). On his way to his latest, greatest shady deal in the back of an ambulance (not sure exactly why), he gets caught up in a crash with a loony-wagon driven by one of the loony's himself (Andy Luotto playing a cartoon character) and, yes, you guessed it, Marrone ends up stuck with all the mental cases in Villa Verde.
Two bumbling Carrabiniere (police officers) played by Daniele Formica and Leo Gullotta are tasked to find Marrone and bring him to justice. These two clowns are hamming it up and mugging all over the place to such an extend that it would make Jim Carrey blush. I get the feeling these two must have been a double act at the time for they are completely attuned to each other. Unfortunately, they really don't add any credibility to the film seeing as the pair of them act just as manic and crazy as the mentally ill patients in Villa Verde. Most of their time is spend trying to coach a basset hound into leading them to the Bank manager. On top of this, the dog has the ability to speak. Not only to the audience but to I Carrabiniere as well, and he is often quite foul mouthed to boot (sort of like an early version of Triumph the Insult Comic-dog).
Meanwhile, Marrone is trying to escape from the nut-house, only to be thwarted at every turn by the delusional in-mates who of course think they are either his nephew, his commanding officer, a Nazi, the pope, walking an invisible dog etc, etc. The head doctor, a fat dude with a curly perms looks like he has a few screws loose too. Indeed, he is experimenting with electrodes on one particular patient that makes him act like a chicken, a dog and eventually turns him into a giant, which the doctor incorrectly identifies as 'Frankenstein'. Shows you how much he knows.
Marrone finally gets out with a little help from his cuckoo friends and ends up making his way home across town with three of them (the 'nephew', the 'general' and the cartoon ambulance driver) - sort of like in the Dream Team. Back at his villa he finds both his wife and his mistress hiding a plethora of very important people in a state of undress in various closets and at this point writers Gianfranco Couyoumdjian and Giorgio Mariuzzo simply gave up altogether, as we head back to the mad house once more for a reception where the frizzle haired doctor is about to reveal his man-made monster and - get this - he has put all of his patients to work as waiters (!?)
As you may have gathered by now, this movie is a mess, but this is not necessarily a bad thing if you're in the mood. None of it makes any sense, but then neither do most of Mel Brooks or the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker films. In fact, there are some unexpected laughs hidden in the sheer insanity of it all and also a surprise appearance by Italian comedy legend Renzo Montagnani. There isn't a whole lot of slap-stick, but it is all accompanied by cartoon sound effects. As an added bonus, it is worth checking out for one of Licinea Lentini's rare nude scenes. The same year a similar film featuring most of the same cast was released, this time simply rather predictably called I Carrabbinieri.
7 out of 10
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