Vivi Gioi

A comedy of errors about marriage and infidelity.

This propaganda film was partly inspired by the story of the first Italian heavyweight champion Primo Carnera who, after winning the title with Al Capone’s help in 1933, was beaten the following year by the Jewish Max Bear and then again by the ‘Brown Bomber’ Detroit Joe Lewis in June 1935, on the eve of the Italian invasion of Ethiopia. This match provoked numerous racial skirmishes on the streets of Harlem between the Black community and pro-Fascist Italian-Americans. The film overturns historical facts and here, obviously, it is the white boxer who wins in order to demonstrate the superiority of the “Aryan Italians” over the “sinister Jewish entrepreneurs” and the “savage Afro-American fans in Yankee Stadium”. In the film, these were played by South African prisoners-of-war interred in a work camp, which the German and Italian propaganda ministries had set up near Cinecittà “for cinematic purposes”.

The 19-year-old Elena, who is as pretty as she is bright, works as a rice girl for the landlord Guerrini. Having become aware of her name, he finds out that she is his illegitimate daughter of whom he knew nothing. He tries to secretly help Elena, who has fallen in love with the car mechanic Gianni. But that only creates mistrust. When Guerrini's worthless nephew harasses the girl, the situation is dramatically worse.

Gianni is a poor, young newspaper salesman in Rome. However, during his vacations he poses as Count Max Varaldo, an aristocrat. Once, on a cruise in Naples, he meets Donna Paola, a wealthy snob, and her shy maid Lauretta. After trying to establish a relationship with Donna Paola, Gianni, disappointed, decides to drop his alter ego Max and propose to Lauretta. However, she now believes that he is a Count, which leads to a series of comic misunderstandings.

A shy and oppressed professor inherits a musical theater show, so he has the opportunity to change is life and find the real love.

A captain, a well-known flying ace, is developing his own device which will make a notable contribution to the prestige of his country's air force. One evening he occasionally meets a girl who strikes him with her mysterious behavior. In fact, he witnesses some completely inexplicable events that disturb him and take away the necessary serenity of mind to attend to his work, from which he feels detached. An explosion in the laboratory brings to the attention of an entire espionage network that was working to prevent the realization of the project.

Smeralda Amadier, a retired singer, lives in an isolated villa with her secretary Marcella and her lover Didier (but throws out the latter after catching him with another woman). Smeralda has huge debts and when creditors threaten her with bankruptcy she decides to sell her valuable jewels. That evening, she meets Costas, a handsome young man who seduces her. Next morning, there is no sign of him or the jewels. He was apparently a penniless gigolo, but who was his secret partner in the theft?

This film is the moving story of Edda Ciano, the daughter of Italian dictator Mussolini, who was unable to prevent the atrocious assassination of her husband by fanatics of her father.