This comic mystery in which Totò plays a murdered nobleman as well as his several siblings, male and female, was one of his best-loved films. It is a fantastic showcase for his miming talent, for when Totò creates a character, it is a whole-body experience, including the tongue. Thus his freewheeling nobleman (cut down by a slayer who leaves only the signature "Diabolicus") bears only a faint familial resemblance to his brothers-a cardinal, a dangerously nearsighted surgeon, and a newly released convict-and to his dowager sister with her rapidfire dialogue that may or may not be Italian. Typically of sixties psychological mysteries, everyone's a suspect, including the gardener (played by director Steno). Totò's playing of every key role perhaps takes a page from Peter Sellers and Alec Guinness, but the completeness with which he folds this conceit into the fabric of the film reminds us more of Sacha Guitry, whose trickster humor advanced the Pirandellian aspect of cinema several notches in the 1930s. (JB)