Grimace unhappily around Italian control freak (12)

'grimace unhappily' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I cannot tell whether it can be defined by this definition.

'around italian control freak' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'around' could be 'o' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'o' is located in the answer.
'italian' could be 'i' and 'i' is found in the answer.
'control' could be 'manage' (managing is a kind of controlling) and 'manage' is found in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

Can you help me to learn more?