Toto the Sheik () is a 1950 Italian comedy film directed by Mario Mattoli and starring Totò. It is a parody of desert films such as The Son of the Sheik and Siren of Atlantis.
Plot
Antonio is the humble servant of a rich family, governed by the Marquis Gastone. Gastone is a young man madly in love with Lulu, but she betrays him, and he desperately enlist in the French Foreign Legion. The old Marchesa, his mother, persuades Antonio to enlist to watch over Gastone, and so he arrives in Arabia.
There Antonio is led with barrel (because enlistment is secret), and is exchanged by Arabs for their sheikh, who came to lead the revolt against the western invaders. The vicissitudes follow one another, especially when the rebels discover that Antonio is not the Sheikh, and so, having also escaped a death sentence, Antonio ends up in a secret passage, in the lost city of Atlantis, where he meets the beautiful Queen Antinea.
Cast
Totò as Antonio Sapore, il maggiordomo
Tamara Lees as Antinea, la regina di Atlantide
Laura Gore as Lulù
Lauretta De Lauri as Fatma
Ada Dondini as La marchesa
Kiki Urbani as La danzatrice araba
Aroldo Tieri as Il marchese Gastone
Cesare Polacco as Mohamed
Arnoldo Foà as Il matto
Mario Castellani as Il colonnello dei ribelli
Riccardo Billi as L'arabo della cella bianca
Ubaldo Lay as Il maggiore della legione
Carlo Duse as Un beduino
Carlo Croccolo as Il cameriere
Ughetto Bertucci as Ludovico, l'autista
References
Bibliography
Roberto Curti. Italian Gothic Horror Films, 1957-1969. McFarland, 2015.