After the Fox (Italian: Caccia alla volpe) is a 1966 heist comedy film directed by Vittorio De Sica and starring Peter Sellers, Victor Mature and Britt Ekland.

The English-language screenplay was written by Neil Simon and De Sica's longtime collaborator Cesare Zavattini.

Despite its notable credits, the film was poorly received when it was released but has since gained a cult following for its numerous in-jokes skewering movie stars, starstruck audiences, pretentious film critics and pompous directors, including Cecil B. DeMille, Federico Fellini, Michelangelo Antonioni and De Sica.

Aldo Vanucci, a master of disguise known as The Fox, is one of the few men who can handle the assignment, but he is in prison, and reluctant to accept the job for fear of disgracing his mother and young sister Gina.

Posing as Italian neo-realist director Federico Fabrizi, he plots to bring the gold ashore as a scene in an avant-garde film.

Fabrizi casts Gina in the film and enlists the starstruck population of Sevalio, a tiny fishing village, to unload the shipment.

The ship finally arrives, and the townspeople unload the gold, but Okra double-crosses Vanucci and drives off with the loot.

This was Neil Simon's first screenplay; at that time, he had three hit shows running on Broadway — Little Me, Barefoot in the Park and The Odd Couple.

[6] Victor Mature, who had retired from films five years earlier, was lured back to the screen by the prospect of parodying himself as Tony Powell.

[7] Mature also revealed that he based Tony Powell partially on De Sica "... plus a lot of egotism, and DeMille, too — that bit with the fellow following him around with the chair all the time."

[10] The voices and accents of the Italian comic actors were dubbed in London, mainly by Robert Rieti, and edited in Rome by Malcolm Cooke, who had been a post-sync dialogue editor on Lawrence of Arabia.

[citation needed] Simon summed up his opinion of the film: "[T]o give the picture its due, it was funny in spots, innovative in its plot, and was well-intentioned.

[11] The title song "After the Fox" was recorded by the Hollies with Sellers in August 1966 and released by United Artists as a single (b/w "The Fox-Trot").

The story was to be planted in the trade papers and then appear in general newspapers, with Sellers available for telephone interviews in character as Fabrizi.

"[16] The Variety reviewer thought that "Peter Sellers is in nimble, lively form in this wacky comedy which, though sometimes strained, has a good comic idea and gives the star plenty of scope for his usual range of impersonations.

"[17] The Boston Globe called the film "funny, fast and wholly ridiculous" and thought Sellers' portrayal of Fabrizi "hilarious.

"[18] Billboard called the film "a series of fun-filled satires ... guaranteed for laughs" and thought that Sellers was "at his droll best" and Mature "hilarious.

"[19] Monthly Film Bulletin wrote, "Continuing the De Sica's decline of recent years, this witless comedy of incompetent crooks and excitable Italians never even begins to get off the ground" and called Seller's performance "self-indulgent," but singled out Mature as "amusing and touching.

[22] It has since gained a cult following for its numerous in-jokes skewering movie stars, starstruck audiences, pretentious film critics and pompous directors, including Cecil B. DeMille, Federico Fellini, Michelangelo Antonioni and De Sica.