Best friends Peppe and Mario are thieves, but they're not very good at it. Still, Peppe thinks that he's finally devised a master heist that will make them rich. With the help of some fellow criminals, he plans to dig a tunnel from a rented apartment to the pawnshop next door, where they can rob the safe. But his plan is far from foolproof, and the fact that no one in the group has any experience digging tunnels proves to be the least of their problems.
A man and his son take an allegorical stroll through life with a talking bird that spouts social and political philosophy.
A combination of a satire on war and a comedy with war as the background. It tells of the ordinary people living on a Naples sidestreet, from 1940 to 1950 under the dominance of the Fascists, the Nazis and then the Allies occupation forces. Primary among the citizens is Gennaro Iovine (Eduard De Filippo)who has a penchant for innocently getting into trouble, and his friend Pasquale (Toto.) The latter is a rail-sweeper who becomes a professional stand-in...a corpse used to conceal contraband...serving jail time for those who don't care to spend the time to do the time...a substitute at a political rally when violence threatens the scheduled speaker
In post war Italy during the fifties it is very difficult to find a house to rent and a family ends up living in a former brothel.
In Napoli, Nicolino Capece, a truthful pharmacist clerk becomes erroneously recognized as a dangerous Spanish criminal and decides to escape to Spain. In Siviglia, he is blackmailed by the bandit Cast who wants him to marry the rich Patricia Cotten and then kill her. So Nicolino play the bull fighter and heads to the arena....
After their boss' death, two clerks eagerly await the arrival of the next one, each one of them hoping to become the apple of his eye. They compete in every possible way to impress him, which causes lots of trouble and many misunderstandings.
During a police raid at Villa Borghese, the agent, a widower named Antonio Caccavallo, stays to get better acquainted with the young Carolina.
In the first Italian film to be shot in color, Totò portrays a musician named Antonio Scannagatti who strongly hopes to sell his composition, "Epopea italiana", to Tiscordi, who is one of the most important Italian impresarios.
Antonio is the humble servant of a rich family governed by the Marquis Gastone. He is a young man madly in love with Lulu, but she betrays him, and he desperately enlist in the foreign legion.
Toto, a former Italian military servant who works as a servant at the British Intelligence Service, is promoted to secret agent with the name of Agent 00Ø8 to convince the ruler of Shamara, Sheikh Ali El Buzur, to yield oil to UK.
A petty thief pretends he is Mussolini's personal physician, wins the confidence of a family, and succeeds in stealing their gold cutlery.
Esposito is a thief who cons tourists in Rome. Officer Bottoni manages to catch him and starts persecuting him. When Esposito manages to flee, Bottoni's superiors inform him that he'll lose his job if he can't catch Esposito.
When the swindler La Spada and his accomplice José come out of jail in Madrid, they decide to pull a really great swindle: nothing less than to discover and sell a third picture of the famous Goya's Maya. They engage the renowed Scorcelletti who can imitate any picture and who lives in Rome. Afterwards, with the help of the beautiful Eva, they convince the celebrated art critic Francisco Montiel of the existance of a third Maya and let him find the picture. When the swindlers are on the point of selling the faked maya to an American millionaire, Scorcelli comes back from Rome to sell one of his six other maya pictures.
Antonio married Amalia and went to fight in Russia during World War II. Since he didn't return Amalia thought he was dead, so she married another man. Many year after the war end, Antonio returned. Amalia has to choose between two husbands.
Duclos's son, a worldly gangster, is compromised in a case of which he is innocent. The proof of this innocence is in the hands of a "competitor", the Marquis de Chemantel de Beauvoiron, a misguided aristocrat. He asked for $ 10 million to cede the document. Duclos will then imagine Chemantel contracting $ 10 million in life insurance for his son. As he discovered in Rome a tramp, a look-alike of the marquis, he will bring this man to Paris and arrange for him to die accidentally.
In 19th-century France, middle-aged orphans Gasparre and Battista, watchmen at an orphanage, find out from a soothsayer that one of them is the offspring of the Hangman of Paris and the other is the son of a count. But it is only a dream of theirs.
Some political candidates are determined to win the electors' preference during an election campaign in Italy.
Young swain Toto Esposito tries to abduct his beloved to marry her, but he makes a mistake: he kidnaps an ugly woman named Carmela, who loves him--and chases him when he escapes.
A psychiatric-clinic medical director runs some tests on two patients, the Ragionier Antonio Vignanelli and Cavalier Peppino Caprioli, so they must retrieve some memories of family life in order to understand their mental illness.
The penniless Duke decides to participate in "Lascia o raddoppia", a TV quiz show, in order to win five million lira. Then two gangsters bet between themselves on his success and, alas, the Duke is kidnapped.
The day of Chief Constable Saracino begins badly when his new car is stolen. Then, in his office, he meets Alfredo Fiori who believes that his wife and her lover, a veterinary, are trying to murder him.
Carlo Rutelli falls in love with the beautiful variety singer Yvonne la Nuit, but his father opposes the wedding. World War I breaks out and Carlo is killed while Yvonne has a son, but on orders from Carlo's father, she is told he is dead. Her career descends and only Nino, an art partner, remains close to her and helps her earn her living by singing in taverns.
Baron Zazà, always broke due his dissolute lifestyle, decides to con a hefty sum of money out of his wealthy but greedy brother.
A professor was appointed member of the jury of a beauty contest and falls for a beautiful contestant. In order to get the girl he must win the "Tour of Italy", so professor sells his soul to the devil to get the winning and the girl.
The fake private detective Mike Spillone is hired by two old ladies to find out if Brigitte, the wife of their nephew Otello Bellomo, has a lover. Brigitte is a physician but the two aunts are unaware of the fact. While investigating, Mike and his assistant Johnny discover Brigitte with a prospective patient, the marquis De Vitti who was shot by the husband of the woman he tried to seduce. Afterwards Spillone finds her with her husband who he believes to be her lover.
Antonio Scaparro (Toto) is obsessed for women. He invents his own way to hide from them - in the attic of his house.
A wealthy trader saves the life of a poor suicidal man who then decides that his savior has the responsibility of taking care of him and his family.
A pair of brothers, Baby Toto and Pietro, sons of different mothers, live stealing suitcases at the Termini Station in Rome. After a theft, they discover that the stolen suitcase they got from an apparent sweet old lady actually contains a corpse.
Beniamino and his family have lived inside a school since the end of the war. After five years they have to move, but in Rome it's not easy to find an apartment.
Two widowers decide to get married but their decision is continually hampered by their grandchildren, who are just interested in their inheritance.
José is a Neapolitan petty thief who escapes from the guards and hides himself in a barrel of Jamaican rum on the quay of the port of Naples.
An aging, down-and-out public employee must face the primary school examination.
Marcellino becomes an orphan and finds two uncles--a good old eccentric man and a villain.
Pasquale takes all of his 12 children and runs away from Monza, looking for a house of a wealthy and generous awning. Having met on the way impoverished peasant, Pasquale takes him also, having granted the rank of "Half-Monk" and thus having gained rustic, but a reliable friend.
Mark Antony has a brother-lookalike, Totonno, a sinister slave trader. Totonno secretly replaces Mark Antony in the most delicate moments.
Mr. Pezzella owns and operates a well-established luxury-clothing store. He does not like and does not consider it right to pay taxes and therefore uses a tax consultant to be able to evade more taxes.
Nini and Mimi are strolling musicians-bassist. For days they are playing on the streets of Rome. One day Nini announced that he has one million and one thousand pounds, having inherited from her grandmother died. Now world belongs only to them, and they can do everything! Ahead of them are Paris, Madrid, England, Scotland, Hong Kong, the United States ....
Two men embarks upon a space race. Their efforts are hampered by aliens who clone the heroes to keep them from exploring further.
Felice Sciosciammocca, the mayor of Roccasecca, sends his nephew Ciccillo to Naples so that he will become a good doctor.
On New Year's Eve, a young woman and an out-of-work actor complicate a pickpocket's plans to ply his trade.
The noble Pantaleo Di Santa Paola has just died, and the preamble to his will is a confession in which he claims that in his youth he had a relationship with a circus rider that produced twin sons.
Tapioca, a small-time thief, hides out in an elegant apartment, where he is soon joined by Cascarilla, one of his apprentices who has become better than his master. When the owners arrive home, the latter offers the wife a bunch of love letters she has written to various lovers for ten million.
After several attempts at suicide, depressed thief Antonio Marchi accidentally drowns in a river and ends up in hell.
Antonio goes to Rome to represent his fellow peasants, to request a highway that will be built in their region. But the guy is mastered by 'la dolce vita' and wastes the money entrusted to him for his mission. When Peppino is sent to to find out what happened, he lets himself be trapped by the gentle grip of 'la dolce vita'
The film consists of six short stories created by different directors, but all the stories share one thing: a warm irony to current events.
Ernesto is the teacher of the village, he is married and he is dominated by his wife. He has the passion of the theatre and he has written a drama in verse named "Il ratto delle Sabine". Unfortunately he has only an admirer and she is their servant Rosina. When the touring company of Prof. Tromboni arrives in the village, Ernesto decides to let them perform his play, though anonymously. So the day arrives and the theatre is sadly empty. But when the news that the author is the teacher spreads far and wide...
A film made up of four episodes: a jar repairer gets trapped in a vat because of his hunch; a young unmarried mother is forced to beg to buy herself a fan; Rosario Chiarchiaro appears before a law court for casting spells; the discomfort of an overtight jacket gives a wedding witness the strength to persuade the bridegroom's reluctant parents to bless his union.
A young man hatches a plan to sleep with another man's infertile wife. Based on the play by Machiavelli.
Beautiful gold-digger Sonia mistakes Antonio, a waiter in a Neapolitan hotel, for Arab Prince Bey of Agapur and makes an appointment with him for the following day in Capri, and Antonio goes there behind the backs of his wife and mother-in-law. A lucky series of circumstances actually does transform him into the prince of the island.
The retired general Antonio Cavalli is a nuisance to his family: to his wife Francesca who still works, to his son and to his daughter-in-law. Then he finds a job in a building firm. Only by chance Cavalli finds out that his salary is paid by his wife to keep him busy. But the general is well known as a very reliable man, and Sandrelli, the firm's owner, uses him and his name to win a valuable contract. When Sandrelli is arrested, the general finds the money to honour his debt but he is robbed while he is going to the bank...
Mobster Pepé Le Mokò dies during a shootout with the police. His gang decide that his successor will be a relative of his from Naples: Antonio Lumaconi (Totò Le Mokò), a street musician.
Antonio, Peppino and Lucia are three brothers who live in the country near Naples. Lucia's son, Gianni, goes to Naples to study medicine, but there he knows a ballet dancer. They fall in love and, when she goes to Milan, Gianni follows her. Informed of this and afraid that their nephew will stop studying, the three Caponi brothers leave for Milan to persuade Gianni to come back and continue studying and abandon the "Malafemmina" (bad girl).
Mastr'Antonio Miciaccio caretaker and shoemaker is devoted to Saint John Beheaded and is trying to find out who has been stealing the oil that keeps the candle to the saint burning. He also does not approve of his daughter's boy friend and he does not want him to marry her.
Italy, mid '60s. Three guys from a poor neighbourhood try to get rich by printing fake money using the fact that one of them works as a typographer. The story unravels around their embarrassed efforts to spend the money, their little family issues and ends with a surprise.
In his first feature, great Italian clown Totò plays a carefree tramp moving from job to job, in order to provide for himself and his young Shirley Temple-like protégée.
A tribute to Naples, this film presents six episodes: a clown exploited by a gangster, a pizza seller losing her husband’s ring, a child's funeral, a gambler beaten by a kid, a prostitute's unusual wedding, and a "wisdom seller" offering advice.
In a small village two twin brothers are of opposite characters. One is mayor of the town, gruff and precise. The other is totally different from his brother and loves the good life and beautiful women.
Roaming the vast jungles of Congo with his best friend, Bongo the gorilla, Antonio della Buffas, a mysterious man whom the natives call the "white monkey", is utterly unaware that he is the long-lost son of a wealthy explorer. Then, three opportunists manage to capture and bring the white savage to civilisation, bent on getting their hands on his immense fortune.
Five episodes about women drivers during the economic boom.
A man is hospitalized in a neurological clinic, suffering from amnesia. After seeing his photo in the newspaper, Mrs. Ballerini realizes that he is her husband and brings him home; then Mrs. Polacich recognizes him as her husband.
A boy and a girl fall in love but their fathers take a strong dislike to each other, clashing repeatedly during the preparations for the upcoming marriage.
After several unsuccessful suicide attempts, Totò finds himself in an animal asylum.
Lieutenant Bombardone is in Paris to wipe out a gang of drug traffickers.
A clown named Tottons of the Togni circus, obliged to never take off his clown makeup or reveal his identity, is continually persecuted by the jealousy of three women and even by a policeman.
A barber, murderer because of jealousy, spends twenty years in jail. He cannot, however adjust himself to a changed world and to the hypocrisy of his own relatives and decides to return behind bars.
An Italian-American mobster is sent back to Naples from the States. He moves to Italy with all his illegal proceeds hidden in jam jars--which fall into the wrong hands when they get to the harbour of Naples. These hands belong to people who demand their fair share. Meanwhile, the mobster is questioned by investigators.
Assola is an imaginary village on the border between Italy and France and the borderline crosses the village itself. The French customs agent Ferdinand is always trying to catch the Italian smuggler Giuseppe. Giuseppe discovers that Ferdinand was actually born in Italy and therefore he can't be a French customs agent.
In the village of Viggiù, the firemen organize various skits and performances in their theater, inviting all the celebrities known at that time.
The marquis Galeazzo di Torre Alta is murdered by a mysterious killer who calls himself Diabolicus. His heirs are his three brothers and a sister, but all of them, with the exception of Monsignor Antonino di Torre Alta, are killed by Diabolicus. The police are unable to solve the case, but when Antonino gives his inheritance to Pasquale Bonocore, illegitimate son of his father and Pasquale is in prison and therefore can't be the killer, all the clues are in the hand of the police.
Greedy Baron Antonio Peletti refuses to give to his town the heredity left by his father, a box full of precious jewels, which he keeps for himself. The major and the rest of the townspeople therefore organize a trick at his expense: they'll make him believe he is dead, and, in a fake "afterlife", they'll try to convince him to finally show them where the money is hidden to save his soul.
The Posalaquaglia cousins are two small scammers and make a living of expedients: Dante receives as recognition for Tommaso a bill of one hundred thousand lire from the famous financier Bruscatelli, who ends up in prison immediately afterwards.
Antonio goes to West Berlin and meets Giuseppe. But Antonio looks like Canarinis, a wanted war criminal, So the daughter of the criminal pays Antonio to impersonate him.
September 1943: in the general confusion a thief dressed as a priest and a sergeant exchange clothes and roles.
Naples/Sorrento, mid 20s. A couple of small thieves conceive a scam whereby one of them dresses up as a eunuch Turk to care for the women of the family of a wealthy man. They end up messing everything up, with lots of gags and funny events in the meantime.
Antonio, a former variety actor, keeps his daughter in an excellent boarding school by organizing small scams with his friend and colleague Felice. Commissioner Malvasia good-naturedly persecuted him. When their respective unsuspecting children fall in love, the two fathers make peace.
Eugene, a young nobleman, asks two penniless idlers to impersonate his noble relatives to help him marry Gemma, the daughter of an enriched cook.
Antonio and Peppino live in a small town in central Italy: Peppino is the barber, Totò is maintained by the rich but avaricious wife Teresa.
Totokamen is an entertainer and an illusionist who performs in various Egyptian nightclubs assisted by his manager, Tarantenkamen. Taking advantage of cheesy tricks, Totokamen pretends to be the son of the god Amun.
A pair of Americans want to perform the greatest robbery: the treasure of San Gennaro, in Napoli.
In WWII Greece, two enemy Colonels, one Italian and the other English, develop a grudging friendship which the war will test.
Antonio La Quaglia becomes the railroader in Piovarolo during 1922 meanwhile the fascism is raising. Later he marries a jewish woman. He has career ambitions but can not reach them.
Two jerks are enlisted in the Italian army during W.W.1 and by pure luck manage to help win an important battle.
In the 18th century, Figaro the Sevillian barber is likely to be arrested because he operates his shop on Sundays, which is forbidden.
The explorer Smith leaves with Laura, a beautiful but naive girl, in search of Professor Berti, who mysteriously disappeared in Africa in the midst of one of his researches.
Aunt Agatha writes to Toto, informing him that she won't send him another penny until he is married.
Two strange street musicians end up in jail and exchange sexy stories to while away time.
Totò is a tailor but not a great tailor. He is married and his son is to be baptized and Totò hopes that his grand-mother will be moved by the baptism, so moved to help him. Unfortunately his wet nurse Maria loses his son in the garden. Totò doesn't lose heart and rents Rita's daughter and leaves looking for his son. Many adventures are awaiting for him.
Baron Luigi Fontana is a rich and stinging producer of fine wines, as well as president of the amateur football team of Cerignola who, to crown a triumphant championship, is about to be promoted to Serie C.
A sort of best of popular comedy skits from previous films by various directors.
Anthological movie with some of the most famous movie sequences in Italian cinema produced by glorious Titanus Film from 1947 to 1962.
The film's theme is four episodes that offer the public a glimpse into the lives of rich and poor families in Italy in the 1960s.
Professor Serafino Benvenuti is a master of classical music who has the passion of the orchestra director. However, the young audience of the 60 does not appreciate classical composers like Mozart or Beethoven, and so Serafino is likely to have compromised his image as a director. One day Serafino receives the news that his adopted daughter Rita is about to return to Italy from America, where she is studying. Serafino is very happy, because at least he can teach her the real music. However, Rita is deeply grown and changed: she follows the musical patterns of her time: the rock music and blues. Serafino gets very angry, especially when he discovers that his daughter falls in love with a young man, a member of a band called "The Rockets.
Paolino, a teacher at an elementary school near Naples, appears nervous for a few days and his friends do not know why. The man is the lover of Assunta, the mother of one of his pupils, and he discovers that she has become pregnant.
Five short stories loosely dealing with the roles of women in society. A superstar actress travels to a mountain resort, only to evoke jealousy from women and lust from men. A woman offers to take an injured man to the hospital. A widowed father and his son seek for a new wife/mother. A man seeks revenge for a woman's honor. A bored housewife tries to explain to her husband that he's not as romantic as he used to be.
Rocco and his brother Martino are two rich country-estate owners who descend upon the city in search of adventure.
Barnabas, said Don Giovannino, is a true lover of beautiful women. One day he chases a beautiful American in his apartment, taking advantage of the fact that her husband is in Rome for a process.
Toto participates in various samples in a study of cinema, first going in a studio where there's shooting a spy movie, then in a western scenario, where he has to play a cruel and uncouth bandit who must challenge him to a duel a cowboy.
The film is composed of five episodes which depict Italians' love lives in the 1960s.
A painter gives his daughter a television set for her 18th birthday. On the evening of the party, the family sits in the living room and watches a series of variety shows taken from the sets of theatrical performances and various films recited by the famous Totò,
Tongue-in-cheek adventure tale of an American attempting to free sailors held as hostages and becoming involved in middle-East tribal wars.
A British Intelligence Officer in Naples at the end of World War II: Norman Lewis's acknowledged masterpiece about a war-torn city and its unforgettable humanity.
Cinecitta is today known as the center of the Italian film industry. But there is a dark past. The film city was solemnly inaugurated in 1937 by Mussolini. Here, propaganda films would be produced to strengthen the dictator's position.
An Italian documentary about Italian cinema.
Ciancicato Miao and his son, after the death of his wife and mother by mushroom poisoning, are dedicated to find her replacement and have no luck until they find a mysterious deaf mute green-haired woman.
Some puppets come to life in a theater with no windows. This time the puppets interpret William Shakespeare's Othello.
These are the years of the Second World War, and Toto is imprisoned in a concentration camp, suffering the harassment of Colonel Hammler, a Nazi cruel and despotic.
Alvaro is been in jail and so he consider himself the most fit to lead his three friends Mario, Otello and Spartaco. The four young men decide to start a business. They need only a van to start a transport company. But they lack the money. How can they get it?
Nine episodes about life in Italy in the period just before its economic boom.
After an introduction consisting of a series of close-ups of Totò, the anthology presents clips from films performed by the late comedian actor, collected in chapters.