20th Century Foxes: The Full Monti

I haven’t seen The Brain since it came out in 1969. It was a caper comedy (big stuff in the post-Topkapi era) starring David Niven, Eli Wallach, Bourvil, Jean-Paul Belmondo and Italian dish Silvia Monti. I’d love to see it again! Silvia was briefly busy: after her debut in Fräulein Doktor (1969) she had supporting roles in several (mostly forgotten) European pictures before Lucio Fulci’s Lizard in a Woman’s Skin (1971). She then played alongside Bud Spencer and Terence Hill in Blackie the Pirate (1971), with Franco Nero in The Fifth Cord (1971), with Ben Gazzara in The Sicilian Connection (1972), and perhaps her meatiest part in Alberto Sordi’s While There’s War There’s Hope (1974). After The Last Desperate Hours (1974), a spaghetti rehash of Kazan’s Panic in the Streets, Silvia married the wealthy Carlo De Benedetti and retired. Meanwhile, the music in the background of this scene from The Brain is “Cento Giorni” by Caterina Caselli. Ciao bella!

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With Terence Hill

With Carlo De Benedetti