Don Camillo: Monsignor

1961 Italian film

7 October 1961 (1961-10-07)

Running time

117 minCountryItalyLanguageItalian

Don Camillo: Monsignor is a 1961 French-Italian comedy film directed by Carmine Gallone, starring Fernandel and Gino Cervi. The French title is Don Camillo Monseigneur and the Italian title is Don Camillo monsignore... ma non troppo. It was the fourth of five films featuring Fernandel as the Italian priest Don Camillo and his struggles with Giuseppe 'Peppone' Bottazzi, the Communist mayor of their rural town. In this instalment, Don Camillo has become a monsignor and Peppone a senator.

Plot summary

In Brescello, Don Camillo and Peppone have left for Rome, after yet another battle royal. Don Camillo has become a monsignor, while Peppone has become a national senator. Both retain their pure and provincial spirit, not suitable to the crude realities of the city, and so they both contrive to return to Brescello. While Don Camillo is planning – in secret – the wedding in a Catholic ceremony of the son of Peppone, the mayor tries to bribe the bride's father to undergo a civil wedding. Don Camillo responds with a proposed deal on the sale of a gas station. Since Peppone, being a Communist, cannot be seen to deal with money, having won the Italian football pools, he decides to hide the ticket. Don Camillo unmasks him, and the two return to fight, as they prepare once again to leave for Rome.

Cast

Fernandel as Don Camillo
Gino Cervi as Giuseppe 'Peppone' Bottazzi
Leda Gloria as Maria Bottazzi, Peppone's wife
Gina Rovere as Gisella Marasca
Valeria Ciangottini as Rosetta Grotti
Saro Urzì as Brusco, the mayor
Marco Tulli as Smilzo
Andrea Checchi as the Roman Communist representative
Emma Gramatica as Desolina, the old lady
Karl Zoff as Walter "Lenin" Bottazzi, Peppone's son
Ruggero De Daninos as Don Camillo's secretary
Carlo Taranto as Marasca, Gisella's husband
Armando Bandini as Don Carlino
Giuseppe Porelli as Doctor Galluzzi
Andrea Scotti as the leader of the "Athletic Youth"

Sequel

Don Camillo in Moscow (Italian: Il compagno don Camillo; French: Don Camillo en Russie)^[1] (1965)
Don Camillo e i giovani d'oggi (French: Don Camillo et les contestataires; English translated: Don Camillo and the youth of today)^[2] (1970) (unfinished film)