A comic film directed by Mario Monicelli and starring popular Italian actor Ugo Tognazzi was released in 1973 and was in the selection of Italian films for the 1973 Cannes Film Festival . It is called '' Vogliamo i colonelli '' ( '' We Want the Colonels '' , in reference to the contemporary US-backed Greek fascist military dictatorship ) . In this film , Tognazzi portrays a boisterous and clumsy far right MP called Tritoni trying to stage a coup against the government . Though the botched attempt sinks in ridicule and chaos , and Tritoni has to go in exile , right wing political measures are nevertheless enforced , such as forbidding labor strikes and political gatherings . The character 's name Tritoni ( Triton ) is a direct reference to Borghese and his military past as the leader of an assault frogmen unit . The film is peppered with joke references to the fascist period , the post-war neo-fascist Italian Social Movement and the Decima MAS frogmen unit
1973 Cannes Film Festival
1973 Cannes Film Festival
Golpe Borghese