The main location for the film, where the “whole mess” begins, is the Tor di Valle racecourse in Rome, seen early on accompanied by the rousing soundtrack by Bixio-Frizzi-Tempera. A short while later, the three main characters venture off to the Agnano racecourse in Naples to gamble on other races, more of their sure bets. At Naples Central Station to get the return train to Rome, they lose the little money they had left for their fares at a game of Find the Lady.
Another key location is the Gran Caffè Roma, still recognisable today as it has kept the same name: the bar, run by Gabriella, Mandrake’s (Gigi Proietti) girlfriend, is located in piazza d’Aracoeli, facing the Campidoglio. Behind the bar, in piazza Margana in the Ghetto, is Palazzo Velli Cardelli whose entrance is well-known to the lookouts working for “Ventresca” to whom er Pomata (Enrico Montesano), who lives here, owes 300,000 lire.
The exhilarating scene where the lucky butcher “Manzotin” is taken for a con in largo Arenula 2, was shot in a completely different location: in via di Villa Emiliani 11 in the Parioli neighbourhood. Mandrake plays a traffic warden who stops an unlucky bystander in a whisky advert (“whisky maschio senza rischio”) in via di Ripetta, facing the Church of San Girolamo degli Schiavoni. In nearby piazza Augusto Imperatore, the fake traffic warden will swindle an unlucky passer-by by requesting payment for a non-existent fine. This famous scene features piazza del Porto di Ripetta and Ara Pacis, which dates to the end of the first century B.C.E, as it was prior to the restructuring of 2006. Another of er Pomata’s swindles starts at the entrance to the Fatebenefratelli Hospital on the isola Tiberina and continues into the nearby pharmacy where the man recycles medicines to try to get some money.
On the riverbanks of the Tiber near the Milvian bridge, the three inveterate gamblers bump into a fellow swindler, De Marchis, a lawyer burdened with debt who has decided to end his life. The friends keep calm and hatch a diabolical plan: they will substitute the most successful jockey of the moment, Jean-Louis Rossini, booked to drive Count Dallara’s horse, with Mandrake himself. They pick the man up at Fiumicino airport and fake a car chase between via Salaria and via Cortona near Villa Spada. In the meantime, the false Rossini walks into the Hotel Excelsior on via Veneto.
The finale takes place at Cesena train station where Mandrake has created a whole fictitious setting in order to send his new wife Gabriella (Catherine Spaak) away by train while he joins his friends for a day of gambling... without however leaving Rome: the scene was shot at St Peter’s station.
The main location for the film, where the “whole mess” begins, is the Tor di Valle racecourse in Rome, seen early on accompanied by the rousing soundtrack by Bixio-Frizzi-Tempera. A short while later, the three main characters venture off to the Agnano racecourse in Naples to gamble on other races, more of their sure bets. At Naples Central Station to get the return train to Rome, they lose the little money they had left for their fares at a game of Find the Lady.
Another key location is the Gran Caffè Roma, still recognisable today as it has kept the same name: the bar, run by Gabriella, Mandrake’s (Gigi Proietti) girlfriend, is located in piazza d’Aracoeli, facing the Campidoglio. Behind the bar, in piazza Margana in the Ghetto, is Palazzo Velli Cardelli whose entrance is well-known to the lookouts working for “Ventresca” to whom er Pomata (Enrico Montesano), who lives here, owes 300,000 lire.
The exhilarating scene where the lucky butcher “Manzotin” is taken for a con in largo Arenula 2, was shot in a completely different location: in via di Villa Emiliani 11 in the Parioli neighbourhood. Mandrake plays a traffic warden who stops an unlucky bystander in a whisky advert (“whisky maschio senza rischio”) in via di Ripetta, facing the Church of San Girolamo degli Schiavoni. In nearby piazza Augusto Imperatore, the fake traffic warden will swindle an unlucky passer-by by requesting payment for a non-existent fine. This famous scene features piazza del Porto di Ripetta and Ara Pacis, which dates to the end of the first century B.C.E, as it was prior to the restructuring of 2006. Another of er Pomata’s swindles starts at the entrance to the Fatebenefratelli Hospital on the isola Tiberina and continues into the nearby pharmacy where the man recycles medicines to try to get some money.
On the riverbanks of the Tiber near the Milvian bridge, the three inveterate gamblers bump into a fellow swindler, De Marchis, a lawyer burdened with debt who has decided to end his life. The friends keep calm and hatch a diabolical plan: they will substitute the most successful jockey of the moment, Jean-Louis Rossini, booked to drive Count Dallara’s horse, with Mandrake himself. They pick the man up at Fiumicino airport and fake a car chase between via Salaria and via Cortona near Villa Spada. In the meantime, the false Rossini walks into the Hotel Excelsior on via Veneto.
The finale takes place at Cesena train station where Mandrake has created a whole fictitious setting in order to send his new wife Gabriella (Catherine Spaak) away by train while he joins his friends for a day of gambling... without however leaving Rome: the scene was shot at St Peter’s station.
Primex
Three friends obsessed by gambling on horses spend most of their time trying to raise the money for their next bet: Bruno Fioretti nicknamed "Mandrake" is a penniless model; unemployed Armando Pellicci is known as "Er Pomata"; and Felice Roversi is an illegal parking attendant.
