Fox

Avanti Fox

Jack Lemmon stars as Walter Armbruster in Wilder's leisurely romantic comedy set on the idyllic Mediterranean. When his father dies in a car crash on the isle of Ischia, the corporate executive is quickly on a plane. Once there, he learns from Pamela Piggott (Juliet Mills), a young Brit, that her mother, who was his father's mistress, was also killed. To make matter worse, bureaucratic rules prevent the release of the bodies for a few days. Not long after, both bodies are stolen from the morgue, and thieves are revealed to be an eccentric family of Italian vintners, who hold the corpses hostage until they are paid for the damage caused to their vineyard by the car crash. After reluctantly paying up, the irritable Walter returns to the hotel, where he even more reluctantly joins the free-spirited Pamela for a night of skinny-dipping. When a porter who attempts to blackmail the naked couple and is shot by his angry, very pregnant girlfriend, the hotel manager Carlucci (Clive Revill) is forced to put Walter and Pamela into the same room, while the murder investigation proceeds. Neither of them regrets his decision. A relaxed, sardonic comedy, juxtaposing the uptight American with the laid back European, it makes many of the same points about the excesses of American life as his earlier films in a far more mellow style.