(L’Armata Brancaleone, a.k.a. For Love and Gold). The creators of Big Deal on Madonna Street reteamed for this deliriously absurd send-up of the medieval Crusades genre, an Italian Monty Python and the Holy Grail whose ribald put-downs of all things “honorable” turned the film into one of Italy’s biggest hits. Vittorio Gassman is a blowhard knight with a mind as warped as his grasp of language (the film’s fantastical Italian-by-way-of-Latin-and-then-through-the-gutter dialogues would be the bane of any translator); hooking up with three not-so-wise men, he soon blazes a torrid path through medieval Italy, encountering plagues, damsels in distress (including a whip-wielding Barbara Steele), not-so-saintly holy men, and evil lords. Legendary writing duo Age and Scarpelli provide the film’s satiric script, while Oscar-winning set and costume designer Piero Gherardi outdoes even Gassman’s hammy performance with his Byzantine creations.

—Jason Sanders

• Written by Monicelli, Age, Scarpelli. Photographed by Carlo Di Palma. With Vittorio Gassman, Catherine Spaak, Gian Maria Volontè, Maria Grazia Buccella. (120 mins, In Italian with English subtitles, Color, 35mm, From Cinecittà Holding)