Will Our Heroes Be Able to Find Their Friend Who Has Mysteriously Disappeared in Africa?

Co-written and directed by Ettore Scola alongside the screenwriting duo Age & Scarpelli (Agenore Incrocci and Furio Scarpelli), this 1968 Italian adventure comedy stars Alberto Sordi and Bernard Blier, with Nino Manfredi and Erika Blanc also in the cast. Shot in Angola, its plot draws loosely on the Salgari, Verne and Conrad books Scola read as a child, as well as Romano Scarpa's Disney comic Topolino e il Pippotarzan.

Production began in 1965 under the working title Mister Sabatini, suppongo, and the finished film started a trend in Italian cinema for extremely long titles. It became the sixth highest-grossing release of the 1968-69 Italian box office season. Its French release was delayed until 1978 after the distributor tried to censor the film's anti-colonial dialogue, a move Bernard Blier reported to Scola, who had the film blocked in France.