Monicelli pulled off a real coup with this irreverent political satire about a rightist plot to restore a dictatorship in Italy. Ugo Tognazzi turns in an energetic performance as the extremist who masterminds the failed coup d’état (blueprints of which he later tries to sell to a small African republic). 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.