Toto and the Kings of Rome

Toto and the Kings of Rome (Totò e i re di Roma, 1952) is an Italian comedy you can watch online on iFILM, co-directed by Mario Monicelli and Steno. The film stars Totò — the stage name of Antonio De Curtis — as a minor Roman bureaucrat whose bad luck begins with a single sneeze.

At the theatre, one loud achoo lands squarely on the bald head in the row in front of him. That head belongs to his superior. To keep his job, our hero must now pass a civil service examination — which, for a man of his particular talents, is a near-insurmountable obstacle. The screenplay loosely adapts two Chekhov stories: The Death of a Government Clerk and An Examination for Promotion.

Totò worked on over ninety films during his career; few caught his gift for physical comedy as cleanly as this one. Alberto Sordi appears in a supporting role, early in his own rise to Italian comedy stardom. Stream Toto and the Kings of Rome (1952) online on iFILM.