After The Fox - Plot

Plot

The story begins in Cairo with the hijacking of $3 million in gold bullion. The thieves need a way to smuggle the two tons of gold bars into Europe. There are only four master criminals considered able to smuggle the gold: one is French (but so crippled he can barely move his wheelchair); one is Irish (but so nearsighted that he is arrested after trying to hold up a police station instead of a bank); one is German (but so fat he can barely get through a door). The only man cunning enough to outwit Interpol is Aldo Vanucci (Peter Sellers), also known as The Fox, a master criminal with a talent for disguise.

Vanucci, who is in prison at the time of the robbery, knows about the smuggling contract but is reluctant to accept it, because he does not want to break the heart of his mother and young sister Gina (Britt Ekland). But when his three sidekicks inform him that Gina has grown up and doesn't always return home from school, an enraged Vanucci vows to break out of prison. He succeeds by making the police believe that he is the prison doctor who has been tied up by Vanucci. When the guards accidentally bring the doctor and Vanucci face to face with each other, Vanucci rips off his false beard and flees. Once out, he goes home to his mother, who considers him to be a disgrace, and sister, who aspires to become a film actress. He makes contact with Okra (Akim Tamiroff), the original gold robber, and accepts the contract for smuggling the gold inside Italy on the condition that he will get 50 percent. Two policemen are constantly on his trail and Vanucci has to use many disguises and tricks to throw them off his trail. During one such escapade in a cinema, it suddenly strikes him that police offer protection to film crews. This idea forms the basis of his master plan.

Vanucci poses as an Italian neo-realist director named Federico Fabrizi. He plans to bring the gold ashore in broad daylight as part of a scene in an avant garde film. To give the picture an air of legitimacy, he cons over-the-hill American matinee idol Tony Powell (Victor Mature) to star in the film, which is blatantly titled The Gold of Cairo. Fabrizi then enlists the starstruck population of Sevalio, a tiny fishing village, to unload the shipment. The plan works without any hiccups and the gold arrives safely inside Italy. Unfortunately for Vanucci, Okra double-crosses him and tries to get away with all the gold, without giving him his share; in a Wacky Races like car chase, Okra; Vanucci; Powell and the Police chase one another through a smoke screen and all end up crashing into each other. After Vanucci is caught, all the misled villagers who helped him are accused of being co-conspirators, and Vanucci's "film" is used as evidence against them in court (an Italian film critic comically proclaims that it's a masterpiece). Vanucci suffers a crisis of conscience and accepts his guilt in court, thereby vindicating the villagers, but proclaiming that he will escape from prison once again.

The film's final scene shows Vanucci escaping from prison yet again by impersonating the prison doctor-this time he ties the doctor up and takes his place. He then walks out when the prison guards think the doctor is Vanucci. As he attempts to remove the fake beard that is part of his disguise, he discovers that the beard is real, meaning that the "wrong man" has escaped from prison.