The Changing of the Guard

Ferandel and Gino Cervi are preparing for the marriage of their children, if the American forces, whose guns can be heard throughout the day, don't reach the town, or the local head of the Fascists, money lender, Dadda Gallotti, doesn't drag everyone off to fight. After Gallotti tears up the youngsters' marriage certificate, he prepares to leave town with a suitcase of gold, paper money, and mortgages. But he is found dead the next morning by the local trash collector. This impels Franco Parenti(who looks like Arthur Shields) to call in reinforcements. This, in turn, forces Fernandel and Cervi to keep moving around the dead body and the money. But other people are also moving them.

It's a general and genial farce of the little town with its own issues opposed to the bigger forces of the Second World War, with a typically funny performance by Fernandel, full of black humor and clockwork timing. Doubtless it was written and cast to work on the leads' performances in the Don Camilio movies, but it certainly succeeds on its own terms.