Monicelli pulled off a real coup with this irreverent political satire about a rightist plot to restore a dictatorship in Italy. The subterfuge and chicanery are handled in a sparkling manner with plenty of well-staged military action and comic suspense-until the plot flops and is replaced by a more efficient institutional coup. Ugo Tognazzi turns in an energetic performance as the extremist who masterminds the failed rightist coup d'état (blueprints of which he later tries to sell to a small African republic). Claude Dauphin plays the weak-hearted president with nervous verve. We Want the Colonels is impressive in its mounting of this logistically complex campaign to topple the government. The squadron of extremist oddballs and shuffling troops is all Monicelli's own-with only minor reliance on stock footage of military parades and maneuvers. While unloading most of his comedic spleen on Italy's right-wing fringe, Monicelli never stops wagging his finger at the other end of the political spectrum. Repeated Sunday, March 23.