Ave Ninchi

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.

In Louis Malle's lauded drama, Lucien Lacombe is a young man living in rural France during World War II who seeks to join the French Resistance. When he is rejected due to his youth, the resentful Lucien allies himself with the Nazis and joins the Gallic arm of their Gestapo. Lucien grows to enjoy the power that comes with his position, but his life is complicated when he falls for France Horn, a beautiful young Jewish woman.

A seedy writer of sleazy pulp novels is recruited by a quirky, reclusive ex-actor to help him write his biography at his house in Malta.

Two waiters who work in a restaurant, whose owner is a big boxing fan, pretend one of them is a boxer and the other his manager. The supposed boxer wins his first matches thanks to set ups organized by the other but when he beats a champion from another part of town, he is severely beaten up by his supporters.

Libero Sbardelloni, newly married, cannot find work in Rome, so he moves to Naples, where Baron Gaetano Gargiulo, his wife Marcella's uncle, lives. The baron, however, is a penniless nobleman who lives by swindling and petty theft, constantly going in and out of prison.

This loosely plotted coming-of-age tale follows the life of 15-year-old Laurent Chevalier as he stumbles his way over the burgeoning swell of adolescence in 1950s France. After having his first sexual experience with a prostitute and dodging the lips of a priest, Chevalier contracts a case of scarlet fever. When the fever leaves him with a heart murmur, Chevalier is placed in a sanatorium, along with his over-attentive and adulterous mother.

In 1960s Paris, an American boxer stumbles upon an international fascist conspiracy that aims to create a new world order.

An unemployed youth tries different jobs such as waiter, hairdresser, porter, salesman and when desperate, he goes to sleep in a flop-house, where he finds a job as a night watchman.

In the sequel of "In ginocchio da te", the engagement of Gianni and Carla is threatened by Giorgio.

During his military service, the young singer Gianni Traimonti falls in love with Carla, the marshal's daughter.

A collection of five episodes dealing with aging women.

When Cleopatra starts filming in Rome, a producer starts a search for a "local' Cleopatra look-a-like. A young actress is chosen for the role but it complicates here entire life.

Five episodes about women drivers during the economic boom.

A group of vignettes about men, mostly married, scheming to get women and the funny ways the schemes play out.

Two boxing promoters travel via time machine back to the days of Hercules, who must save them from Genghis Khan and the Mongol Horde.

Walter Chiari as a Pugliese who lives in Milan. He has two cousins ​​identical to him. The two arrive in the city to find work and twist their lives.

Thirty girls arrive in a seaside town to participate in a beauty contest. Marina has no ambitions of victory: she only wants to have the sewing machine promised to each participant.

Teo, a young theatre stand-in, is offered a tempting Faustian pact by the Devil: if he pushes a button, a Chinese Mandarin will die and leave his money to him.

A great Party is given by the rich family of Improta. Every kind of intrigue gets around this party. The purpose of every plan is to find a husband or a wife with a quality: wealth.

Four Parisian women navigate the world of romance and daily life looking to fulfill their dreams.

Tom Ripley is a talented mimic, moocher, forger and all-around criminal improviser; but there's more to Tom Ripley than even he can guess.

An Italian drama directed by Leopoldo Savona.

After leaving a wealthy Belgian family to become a nun, Sister Luke struggles with her devotion to her vows during crisis, disappointment, and World War II.

Returning from his honeymoon, Marcella finds out she is pregnant. The to-be grandparents fight on where the baby will be born and on his name. The parents of the baby, tired of those fights, run away to Milan.

There is a lot of excitement in the high society of Venice: An Arab prince, who always travels incognito, is said to be in the city. By chance, the elegant Isabella gets to know the handsome heir to the throne - and it does not take long for her to fall madly in love with him. Isabella has no idea that her dream man is really the impostor Gérard, who looks remarkably like the prince and was hounded by the sleazy crook Alfredo on Isabella to steal their precious jewelry.

Cesare, from Rome, and Mimì, from Naples, don't agree with their children marriage, so the young couple runs away from their home.

Two women, Tina, who is a pizza chef, and Lisa, who runs a shop, can't stand each other, but they have a nephew and a daughter respectively, who love each other.

Anna falls madly in love with an Italian violinist, who instead marries her sister Monika.

A newlywed couple win the lottery and the prize is a mink fur which might change their lives forever.

A traveling salesman is sent to prison after being accused of bigamy, while his wife and son are forced to consider leaving him permanently.

Love and jealousy in a female public school. Most of the co-eds are in love with professor La Rovere. One, Anna, accuses Maria to have an affair with him.

Two widowers decide to get married but their decision is continually hampered by their grandchildren, who are just interested in their inheritance.

Victor Le Garrec, a former boxer, runs a gym in Paris while dreaming of finding an aspiring champion who will reach the goals he was never able to achieve.

André is a loving and attentive husband, but when he agrees to plead his enamored brother's case with student Françoise Massard, he in turn becomes infatuated with the beautiful woman, who is perpetually in search of true love through a series of hazardous romantic relationships. When Françoise learns that the legitimate couple are expecting a child.

A famous tenor pawns valuables too often. His strange behavior arouses the suspicions of a detective. The situation is complicated by the fact that both the tenor and the detective are in love with the same woman. Attempts at infidelity, revenge, and spying ensue. In the end, love conquers all.

An Italian historical comedy film consisting of three segments, based on three stage plays by Anton Chekhov.

The adventures of Count Angelo de Marchis as he tries to reach his besieged allies in Rome with much needed funds from England. Can he evade the pursuing "Contessa Sara Mondini" and her Milanese henchmen?

A young couple, Renato and Maria, struggle to provide for their young daughter Pia.

In the background of the football match Roma - Napoli different stories intertwine.

Antonio Scaparro (Toto) is obsessed for women. He invents his own way to hide from them - in the attic of his house.

Mario and Fabrizio are two boxer friends who fall for the same girl and become enemies because of her. As time goes by things get better between the two men but... tragedy looms behind the corner.

Achille Scorzella, a poor, unemployed and hungry devil, having been mistaken for a piano tuner, happens in the home of some new riches.

A singer and operetta dancer works in a small french town where the authorities want to expel her because of her scandalous conduct and performance. When a puritan judge closes the show, the woman will take revenge involving the judge in an affair before the selfsame Justice minister. From that moment on, a series of diversions and misunderstandings will play out leading the main characters to the city of Paris.

The Passaguai family is living peacefully, but then they go to see the magician Bhorman, starting a series of problem for them.

A down-and-out crook on the lam befriends a young street urchin, in an Italian port city. At first amused that the boy is a sneak thief, he tries to deflects the kid from a life of crime. Tipped off by a woman anxious to collect the reward for him (who is wanted for murder), the police pursue the two lost souls.

To get ahead after he answers a newspaper ad for a business proposition, Passaguai borrows the more impressive apartment of a retired actor and arranges an elaborate luncheon there.

Three gorgeous seamstresses meet on the historic steps of the Piazza de Spagna in Rome to discuss one another's love lives.

When Passaguai family patriarch Giuseppe (Fabrizi) decides to take advantage of a corporate discount to bring his wife (Ninchi) and children to spend a Sunday at the beach of Fiumicino, a series of troubles begins for everyone, in the form of a comic nightmare.

A story, set in Rome of 44 A.D., concerning the amorous and political intrigues of the evil Empress Messalina, the wife of the Roman Emperor Claudius, and her eventual hounding to death.

Having been warned in dreams that Snow White is in danger, the Seven Dwarfs set out to rescue the princess from the evil Prince of Darkness.

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.

A group of Italian soccer fans arrive in Paris for a match, but most of them go their separate ways to explore the sights, have a bit of an adventure, and maybe even find some romance.

The love story between Don Camillo's protégé and Don Violante's niece adds fuel to the rivalry between the two priests.

An Italian war bride has problems dealing with her husband's possessive mother.

A fallen nobleman convinces a Roman coachman that he has found the way to win at Sambo, a Brazilian game of chance. Sent a messenger to Brazil to gamble, the two men go wild and run up debts. When they realize they have won nothing, they initially fall into total despair; however the coachman had played a coupon from the football pools on his own account. He will win and make things right.

Progressive schoolteachers Landi and Anna have a profound influence on two of their young students, Mirella and Franco. The two kids are enamored with one another and decide to experiment with some of the knowledge they've gleaned in the classroom.

An artist of variety, known in art with the name of Bebè, is a charlatan in Cannes, in a company with Zallos, a shady type.

Aunt Agatha writes to Toto, informing him that she won't send him another penny until he is married.

The plot weaves several episodes with several groups of people, Roman families, youth gangs and young love couples, who spend a Sunday at the beach of Ostia.

March 1945: an air raid destroys a fishing village. The homeless are hosted by Brother Angelo in the convent of San Fruttuoso in Camogli: years pass but the houses are not rebuilt and when the prior dies, the convent is sold to the rich engineer Milone, determined to transform it into a holiday complex. To prevent the homeless from ending up on the streets, Brother Angelo devises every possible expedient, even a fake miracle while waiting for San Fruttuoso to perform a real one.

The title of this Italian melodrama translates to Pact with the Devil. However, His Satanic Majesty does not appear in the film. Rather, this expensively produced period piece is more along the lines of Romeo and Juliet, with young love threatened by warring families. In his first Italian film, Hollywood veteran Eduardo Cianelli goes through his usual villainous paces as the scheming father of the male lead (Jacques Francois). The most fascinating performance is rendered by Umberto Spadaro, as the village idiot, or is he? Patto col Diavolo makes the most of the visual dynamics of Italy's mountainous Calabrian region.

Bianca, a rich heiress, being an orphan, lives in her palace with her guardian uncle and cousin Olga.

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.

On his way to his own wedding, a young man saves a woman who attempted suicide by jumping into a river and falls for her.

After murdering his mistress and being hunted by the authorities in France, Pierre stows away aboard a ship bound for Genoa. Though he's immediately robbed after arriving, things look up for Pierre when he meets kindhearted Cecchina, who introduces him to her mother, Marta. Pierre and Marta fall in love, but police are closing in and the new couple may not have much time left.

In the village of Viggiù, the firemen organize various skits and performances in their theater, inviting all the celebrities known at that time.

Anthology comedy/romance film

Aldo Piscitello, a minor government clerk, is forced in 1934 to join the Fascist party. When the war comes, he finds himself able only to talk ineffectually in secret against Mussolini, even as his own son Giovanni is sent into battle. By the end of the war, Aldo has found the courage to stand up for his beliefs, but by then it is too late.

A young student of an upper-class background who is surrounded by classmates that are of working-class backgrounds, after a novel in diary format by Enrico Bottini.

Second World War . Field 119 in California (USA ) . War is long over , but the Italian Prisoners Still waiting to return home , preparing to celebrate , away from families , another sad Christmas. To dare a little rein to Their longing , they tell Episodes of Their Life . A Roman tells the USA difficult married life . A Neapolitan soldier tells of His lieutenant, a Neapolitan duke penniless . Meanwhile , the camp commander gave : Prisoners and a gramophone , So , Ai stories intertwine songs . Another soldier recalls the parties and the songs of the Sicilian spring , WHILE a Venetian gondolier evokes A HIS love affair . Sometimes , From Radio shabby listening news from abroad and Italy . Finally , one day , comes the ' pending release and All They return home .

A rowdy woman is so forceful that she outdoes her husband in a loud cry against speculators who refuse poor people entrance to a block of new apartments, built after WW2. Without noticing it, she starts a people's movement, and leads a march to the capital. She returns to her village a winner, an honourable MP. Yet, she is still the same simple, fiery woman, able to get in a hair-pulling brawl with the local barmaid for the affection of her man.

A peasant leader under the enlightened despotism of Empress Catherine the Great, and a love story.

Giovanni used to be a humble, mild-mannered government clerk whose life was turned upside down when he met Giulio, a notorious forger who at once set about manipulating the over-confident man. Giovanni did what he should never have done: he associated himself with the crook. Giulio soon laid hands on Giovanni's money, ruined his career and manhandled him into marrying his own mistress, the beautiful Ginevra. It was of course an unhappy marriage but Giovanni found a little solace when his son Ciro was born. Seven years later though, Wanzer resurfaced...

An American prisoner, hidden by some Umbrian farmers, meets, drunk, with a German soldier who is also drunk. The two believe that the war is over and embrace each other emotionally. But it is not so and soon the cannon will thunder. Uncle Tigna, who was hiding the prisoner and two of his companions, will fall victim to the Nazis.

In a post-war Rome (1946) a cat burglar inadvertently saves the life of a would-be suicide man who returns from the war to find that he has been betrayed by his fiancée while fighting in the war. From that moment the thief takes the ex-soldier under his wing. They leave house together for a night full of misadventures. In a streets of Rome they meet the struggling typist who can’t pay her rent and opts to street life; a wandering amnesiac who lost his memory and keeps asking everyone “Do you recognize me?”. Thieves, gamblers, hookers, policemen, soldiers and endless chain of cigarette-smoking and alcohol/espresso-drinking.

An opera singer hides an American soldier in his house in Nazi-occupied Rome.

A man comes home from the war and finds both his plant and his family destroyed.

Some Italian partisans want to take refuge in a convent to escape German raids. The nuns are a little perplexed at first but then agree since one of the men is seriously wounded. When the partisans eventually leave, the Germans take a terrible revenge.