The Magnificent Cuckold

Last updated
Il magnifico cornuto
The Magnificent Cuckold.jpg
Directed by Antonio Pietrangeli
Written by Diego Fabbri, Ruggero Maccari
Cinematography Armando Nannuzzi
Edited by Eraldo Da Roma
Music by Armando Trovajoli
Release date
  • 1964 (1964)
Running time
124 minutes
CountryItaly
Language Italian

The Magnificent Cuckold or Il magnifico cornuto is a 1964 Italian sex comedy film directed by Antonio Pietrangeli and based on the Belgian play Le Cocu magnifique written by Fernand Crommelynck.

Contents

Plot

The Magnificent Cuckold is about a hat tycoon who is ecstatically, if not hungrily, in love with his youthful wife. It is all blissful, that is, until our man, middle-aged and somewhat of a square among his blasé, upper-class friends to whom cuckoldry is a common practice, is seduced by one of them. At this point doubts and suspicions, like conscience, begin to plague him. If he could succumb to extramarital confections, why not his gorgeous mate? Quickly his love for his spouse degenerates beyond obsessive, into the realm of maniacal. He becomes madly concerned that his wife is cheating on him—even though she is not being unfaithful. When he looks at her it becomes obvious to him that she is a very attractive woman. And, all the men around her must be dying to be with her. Gnawed by jealously, he will imagine variations on catching her and her lover red-handed. The film ends with the tycoon realizing his mistake.

Cast

Reception

The New York Times published a positive, detailed review and stated Il magnifico cornuto was "mildy amusing". [1]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lorenzo de' Medici</span> Italian statesman and de facto ruler of Florence (1449–1492)

Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici, known as Lorenzo the Magnificent, was an Italian statesman, the de facto ruler of the Florentine Republic, and the most powerful patron of Renaissance culture in Italy. Lorenzo held the balance of power within the Italic League, an alliance of states that stabilized political conditions on the Italian Peninsula for decades, and his life coincided with the mature phase of the Italian Renaissance and the golden age of Florence. As a patron, he is best known for his sponsorship of artists such as Botticelli and Michelangelo. On the foreign policy front, Lorenzo manifested a clear plan to stem the territorial ambitions of Pope Sixtus IV, in the name of the balance of the Italian League of 1454. For these reasons, Lorenzo was the subject of the Pazzi conspiracy (1478), in which his brother Giuliano was assassinated. The Peace of Lodi of 1454 that he supported among the various Italian states collapsed with his death. He is buried in the Medici Chapel in Florence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ludovico Sforza</span> Duke of Milan (1452–1508)

Ludovico Maria Sforza, also known as Ludovico il Moro, and called the "arbiter of Italy" by historian Francesco Guicciardini, was an Italian nobleman who ruled as the Duke of Milan from 1494 to 1499.

<i>The Last Tycoon</i> 1941 unfinished novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Last Tycoon is an unfinished novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald. In 1941, it was published posthumously under this title, as prepared by his friend Edmund Wilson, a critic and writer. According to Publishers Weekly, the novel is "generally considered a roman à clef", with its lead character, Monroe Stahr, modeled after film producer Irving Thalberg. The story follows Stahr's rise to power in Hollywood, and his conflicts with rival Pat Brady, a character based on MGM studio head Louis B. Mayer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gian Maria Volonté</span> Italian actor (1933–1994)

Gian Maria Volonté was an Italian actor and activist, remembered for his versatility as a performer, his outspoken left-wing leanings, and fiery temper on- and off-screen. He is perhaps most famous outside Italy for his roles in four Spaghetti Western films: Ramón Rojo in Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars (1964), El Indio in Leone's For a Few Dollars More (1965), El Chuncho Munoz in Damiano Damiani's A Bullet for the General (1966) and Professor Brad Fletcher in Sergio Sollima's Face to Face (1967).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Virna Lisi</span> Italian actress (1936–2014)

Virna Lisa Pieralisi, known as just Virna Lisi, was an Italian actress. Her international film appearances included How to Murder Your Wife (1965), Not with My Wife, You Don't! (1966), The Secret of Santa Vittoria (1969), Beyond Good and Evil (1977), and Follow Your Heart (1996). For the 1994 film La Reine Margot, she won Best Actress at Cannes and the César Award for Best Supporting Actress.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Count Paris</span> Character in Romeo and Juliet

Count Paris or County Paris is a fictional character in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. He is a suitor of Juliet. He is handsome, wealthy, and a kinsman to Prince Escalus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ugo Tognazzi</span> Italian actor

Ugo Tognazzi was an Italian actor, director, and screenwriter.

<i>An Almost Perfect Affair</i> 1979 film

An Almost Perfect Affair is a 1979 romantic comedy film directed by Michael Ritchie and starring Keith Carradine and Monica Vitti. The plot is about an affair between a filmmaker and a film producer's wife, set during the Cannes Film Festival.

<i>The Greek Tycoon</i> 1978 film by J. Lee Thompson

The Greek Tycoon is a 1978 American biographical romantic drama film, of the roman à clef type, directed by J. Lee Thompson. The screenplay by Morton S. Fine is based on a story by Fine, Nico Mastorakis, and Win Wells, who loosely based it on Aristotle Onassis and his relationship with Jacqueline Kennedy. Mastorakis denied this, instead stating "We're not doing a film about Aristotle Onassis. It's a personification of all Greek Tycoons." The film stars Anthony Quinn in the title role and Jacqueline Bisset as the character based on Kennedy. Quinn also appeared in Thompson's 1979 film The Passage. Various plot lines track the Kennedy assassination and Onassis relationships but the ordering of the timeline being vastly different. Onassis' son did die in a plane crash, one of his ex-wives committed suicide and the marriage was short lived due to a sudden illness. Names were similar but not identical.

<i>The Double</i> (Saramago novel) 2002 novel by José Saramago

The Double is a 2002 novel by Portuguese author José Saramago, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1998. In Portuguese, the title is literally "The Duplicated Man." It was translated into English and published as The Double in 2004.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antonio Pietrangeli</span> Italian film director and screenwriter

Antonio Pietrangeli was an Italian film director and screenwriter. He was a major practitioner of the commedia all'italiana genre.

<i>Casanova 70</i> 1965 Italian film

Casanova 70 is a 1965 Italian comedy film produced by Carlo Ponti, directed by Mario Monicelli and starring Marcello Mastroianni, Virna Lisi, Enrico Maria Salerno and Michèle Mercier.

<i>Vicky Cristina Barcelona</i> 2008 film directed by Woody Allen

Vicky Cristina Barcelona is a 2008 romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Woody Allen. The film stars Javier Bardem, Penélope Cruz, Rebecca Hall and Scarlett Johansson in lead roles. The plot centers on two American women, Vicky and Cristina, who spend a summer in Barcelona, where they meet an artist, Juan Antonio, who is attracted to both of them, while still enamored of his mentally and emotionally unstable ex-wife María Elena. The film was shot in Spain in Barcelona, Avilés, and Oviedo, and was Allen's fourth consecutive film shot outside the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clarice Orsini</span> Wife of Lorenzo de Medici

Clarice Orsini (1453–1488) was the daughter of Jacopo Orsini, and his wife and cousin Maddalena Orsini both from the Orsini family, a great Roman noble house and was the wife of Lorenzo de' Medici.

<i>Deadfall</i> (1968 film) 1968 British film

Deadfall is a 1968 British neo noir crime film written and directed by Bryan Forbes and starring Michael Caine, Eric Portman, Giovanna Ralli and Forbes's wife Nanette Newman, with music by John Barry in his final collaboration with Forbes. Barry also plays a musical conductor in the film. It is based on Desmond Cory's 1965 thriller and shot in and around Majorca, Spain. The film's theme song, "My Love Has Two Faces", was performed by Shirley Bassey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cuckold</span> Husband of an adulterous wife

A cuckold is the husband of an adulterous wife; the wife of an adulterous husband is a cuckquean. In biology, a cuckold is a male who unwittingly invests parental effort in juveniles who are not genetically his offspring. A husband who is aware of and tolerates his wife's infidelity is sometimes called a wittol or wittold.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marilù Tolo</span> Italian actress (born 1944)

Marilù Tolo is an Italian film actress. She appeared in more than 60 films between 1960 and 1985.

<i>Delusions of Grandeur</i> (film) 1971 French film

Delusions of Grandeur is a 1971 French comedy film directed by Gérard Oury. It is a very liberal comedic adaptation of the play Ruy Blas by Victor Hugo.

Le Cocu magnifique is a Belgian play by Fernand Crommelynck. It was first published in 1921.

<i>To Rome with Love</i> (film) 2012 film

To Rome with Love is a 2012 magical realist romantic comedy film written, directed by and co-starring Woody Allen in his first acting appearance since 2006, as well as his most recent appearance in a film he's directed. The film is set in Rome; it was released in Italian theaters on April 13, 2012, and opened in Los Angeles and New York City on June 22, 2012.

References

  1. Weiler, A.H. (1965-04-20). "Il Magnifico Cornuto (1965)". The New York Times . Retrieved 2013-08-01.