Don Camillo Monsignor (1961) Directed by Carmine Gallone
Comedy
aka: Don Camillo monsignore ma non troppo
Film Review
This is the fourth in a series of films in which the legendary French comic actor Fernandel
played Don Camillo, the character of the popular novels by Giovanni Guareschi. Whilst
Fernandel still clearly relishes the part that fits him like a glove, it's equally clear
that the ideas are starting to dry up. After all, there's only so much fun you can
have with a bickering Catholic priest and a communist mayor. The film has some of
the charm of the earlier films in the series but the situations are far more contrived
and less entertaining. Still, there is one moment of comic brilliance - the scene
when Peppone appears to get squashed by an enormous bell. Unfortunately, the communist
mayor survived and the Don Camillo series carried on with its painfully slow demise...
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Film Synopsis
With both Don Camillo and his communist archenemy Peppone away in Rome, the
little Italian village of Brescello is at last a haven of peace. But
this happy state of affairs doesn't last long... The news that the
villagers plan to demolish an ancient chapel and build a House of the People
in its place soon reaches the ears of Don Camillo, now comfortably ensconced
in the Vatican. Appalled by this proposed act of desecration, the priest
hurries back to his former village and is soon caught up in yet another blood-and-guts
tussle with the troublesome Peppone.
Even when the bitter incident of the chapel is resolved, Don Camillo cannot
help meddling in other matters, and once again he is waging another private
war against the man he has come to regard as the Devil incarnate. The
priest scores a delicious victory by forcing his enemy's son to have a religious
marriage ceremony instead of the civil wedding he had been planning.
Things then come to a head when Don Camillo refuses to sound the knell for
a demonstrator who was killed during a strike...
Script: René Barjavel (dialogue),
Leonardo Benvenuti (dialogue), Piero De Bernardi (dialogue),
Carmine Gallone,
Giovanni Guareschi (novel)
Cinematographer: Carlo Carlini
Music: Alessandro Cicognini
Cast:Fernandel (Don Camillo),
Gino Cervi (Giuseppe 'Peppone' Botazzi),
Leda Gloria (Maria Botazzi, moglie di Peppone),
Gina Rovere (Gisella Marasca),
Valeria Ciangottini (Rosetta Grotti),
Saro Urzì (Brusco, il sindaco),
Marco Tulli (Lo smilzo),
Andrea Checchi (L'esponente comunista di Roma),
Emma Gramatica (Desolina, la vecchia),
Karl Zoff (Walter "Lenine" Botazzi, figlio di Peppone),
Ruggero De Daninos (Un monsignore),
Carlo Taranto (Marasca, il marito di Gisella),
Armando Bandini (Don Carlino),
Giuseppe Porelli (Il dottor Galluzzi),
Andrea Scotti (Il capo dei giovani atleti),
Giulio Girola (Il signor Grotti, padre di Rosetta),
Alexandre Rignault (Fagò),
Ignazio Balsamo (Un compagno socialista),
Paul-Emile Deiber (La voix de Jésus (French version)),
Armando Migliari (Un esponente democristiano)
Country: Italy
Language: Italian
Support: Black and White
Runtime: 109 min
Aka:Don Camillo monsignore ma non troppo ;
Don Camillo: Monsignor
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