''Don Camillo's Last Round'' (French: ''La grande bagarre de Don Camillo'', Italian: ''Don Camillo e l'onorevole Peppone'') is a 1955 French-Italian

comedy film The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor. These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending, with dark comedy being an exception to this rule. Comedy is one of the o ...

directed by

Carmine Gallone Carmine Gallone (10 September 1885 – 11 March 1973) was an early Italian film director, screenwriter, and film producer, who was also controversial for his works of pro-Fascist propaganda and historical revisionism. Considered one of Itali ...

and starring

Fernandel Fernand Joseph Désiré Contandin (8 May 1903 – 26 February 1971), better known as Fernandel, was a French comic actor. Born in Marseille, France, to Désirée Bedouin and Denis Contandin, originating in Perosa Argentina, a town located in th ...

Gino Cervi Luigi Cervi (3 May 1901 – 3 January 1974), better known as Gino Cervi (), was an Italian actor. He was best known for portraying Peppone in a series of comedies based on the character ''Don Camillo'' (1952–1965), and police detective Jul ...

and

Leda Gloria Leda Gloria (30 August 1908 – 16 March 1997) was an Italian film actress. She appeared in 66 films between 1929 and 1965. During the expansion of Italian cinema of the Fascist era of the 1930s and early 1940s she appeared in starring roles, l ...

. It was the third of five films featuring Fernandel as the Italian priest

Don Camillo Don Camillo () and Peppone () are the fictional protagonists of a series of works by the Italian writer and journalist Giovannino Guareschi set in what Guareschi refers to as the "small world" of rural Italy after World War II. Most of the Don Ca ...

and his struggles with Giuseppe "Peppone" Bottazzi, the Communist mayor of their rural town. The film had 5,087,231 admissions in France. It was shot at the

Cinecittà Studios Cinecittà Studios (; Italian for Cinema City) is a large film studio in Rome, Italy. With an area of 400,000 square metres (99 acres), it is the largest film studio in Europe, and is considered the hub of Italian cinema. The studios were constru ...

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

and on location in

Boretto Boretto ( Reggiano: ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Reggio Emilia in the Italian region Emilia-Romagna, located about northwest of Bologna and about northwest of Reggio Emilia.. Boretto borders the following municipalities: ...

and

Brescello Brescello (; in the local dialect, in the Reggio Emilia dialect) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Reggio Emilia in the Italian region Emilia-Romagna, located about northwest of Bologna and about northwest of Reggio Emilia. ...

Emilia-Romagna Emilia-Romagna (, , both , ; or ; ) is an Regions of Italy, administrative region of northern Italy, comprising the historical regions of Emilia (region), Emilia and Romagna. Its capital is Bologna. It has an area of , and a population of 4.4 m ...

. The film's sets were designed by the

art director Art director is a title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, live-action and animated film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supe ...

Virgilio Marchi Virgilio Marchi (21 January 1895 – 30 April 1960) was an Italian architect and art director. He designed the sets for more than fifty films during his career. Marchi was stylistically identified with the Futurist movement.Sabatino, Michelangelo. ...

Plot

In the small town of

, skirmishes are continuing between the parish priest

and the Communist mayor Peppone Bottazzi. After staging a theft of Don Camillo's prized chickens in retribution for a political prank pulled by the priest, Peppone decides to enter the big time of politics by standing for national senator. Peppone has been assisted by a winsome young lady comrade sent from the big city to assist him, but the mayor's wife – suspecting more – complains to Don Camillo, who endeavours to remedy the threatened domestic breakdown. Peppone must the fifth grade exam, the elementary school leving exam ("abolished" in 2003–2004).

Cast

as Giuseppe 'Peppone' Bottazzi *

Claude Sylvain Claude Sylvain (1930–2005) was a French actor and singer.Powrie p.257 After appearing in films of the 1950s, playing in a mixture of female lead and supporting roles, she switched to appear as a performer in cabaret Cabaret is a form of thea ...

as Clotilde *

as La signora Bottazzi, moglie di Peppone *

Umberto Spadaro Umberto Spadaro (8 November 1904 – 12 October 1981) was an Italian actor. He appeared in around 95 films between 1940 and 1979. His brother Peppino Spadaro was also an actor. Selected filmography * ''Cavalleria rusticana'' (1939) – Salt ...

as Bezzi *

Memmo Carotenuto Memmo Carotenuto (23 August 1908 – 23 December 1980) was an Italian actor. He appeared in 125 films between 1941 and 1980. Selected filmography *'' The Wedding Trip'' (1969) * '' Assassination in Rome'' (1965) * '' Male Companion'' (196 ...

as Lo Spiccio *

Saro Urzì Rosario "Saro" Urzì (24 February 1913 – 1 November 1979) was an Italian actor. He is best known for his roles in the films '' In the Name of the Law'' (1949), ''The Railroad Man'' (1956), '' Seduced and Abandoned'' (1964), which earned him a ...

as Brusco, il parucchiere *

Guido Celano Guido Celano (19 April 1904 – 7 March 1988) was an Italian actor, voice actor and film director. He appeared in 120 films between 1931 and 1988. He also directed two spaghetti Westerns: '' Cold Killer'' and '' Gun Shy Piluk''. Selected f ...

as Il maresciallo *

Luigi Tosi Luigi Tosi (15 July 1915 – 12 March 1989) was an Italian actor. He appeared in more than seventy films from 1944 to 1965. Filmography References External links * 1915 births 1989 deaths Italian male film actors Male actors from ...

as Il prefetto *

Marco Tulli Marco Tulli (20 November 1920 – 20 March 1982) was an Italian character actor, probably best known in the role of "Smilzo" in the Don Camillo film series. Born in Rome, Tulli debuted as actor while he was still a university student, at the en ...

as Lo Smilzo *

Giovanni Onorato Giovanni Onorato (February 7, 1910 - February 23, 1960) was an Italian film actor.Chiti & Poppi p.85 He was the father of the actor Glauco Onorato and the cinematographer Marco Onorato. Selected filmography * '' La stella del cinema'' (1931) * ...

as Il Lungo

Sequel

*'' Don Camillo: Monsignor'' (Italian: ''Don Camillo monsignore ma non troppo''; French: ''Don Camillo Monseigneur'') (1961) *'' Don Camillo in Moscow'' (Italian: ''Il compagno don Camillo''; French: ''Don Camillo en Russie'') (1965) *''Don Camillo e i giovani d'oggi'' (French: ''Don Camillo et ses contestataires''; English translated: ''Don Camillo and the youth of today'') (1970) (unfinished film)

References

1955 comedy films 1955 films Don Camillo and Peppone films Films directed by Carmine Gallone French comedy films Italian comedy films 1950s Italian-language films Films with screenplays by Age & Scarpelli French satirical films Italian satirical films French political satire films Italian political satire films Films critical of communism Films scored by Alessandro Cicognini Films shot at Cinecittà Studios Films with screenplays by René Barjavel 1950s Italian films 1950s French films {{1950s-comedy-film-stub