cult film freak: PETER SELLERS, BRITT EKLAND & VICTOR MATURE 'AFTER THE FOX'

Britt Ekland in AFTER THE FOX Year: 1966 Rates: **1/2

Victor Mature plays an aged, has-been actor who spends so much time bickering with agent Martin Balsam about doing or not doing a French existential film, you'll simply want things to narrow into what the real movie's about...

And AFTER THE FOX doesn't mean what follows but who's following Peter Sellers' criminal named Fox, who broke out of prison, in disguise, and there's plenty of humor but not enough laughs...

Shame since the cinematography's so gorgeous, a satire on the pretentious side of 1960's French New Wave cinema, ironically directed by 1950's minimalist BICYCLE THIEVES auteur Vittorio De Sica, not allowing either his funny guy (Sellers) or straight man (Mature) enough time together... leaving the best scenes to Britt Ekland as The Fox's little sister he lives to protect, overriding his plot to recover stolen loot, which is why he's imitating a filmmaker in the first place. But, like that bogus art film (badgered by noisy, annoying villagers), all that matters is the deliberately pointless running around, which is entertaining yet tiresome. And not always in that order.