Alfredo Giannetti

Ferdinando Cefalù is desperate to marry his cousin, Angela, but he is married to Rosalia and divorce is illegal in Italy. To get around the law, he tries to trick his wife into having an affair so he can catch her and murder her, as he knows he would be given a light sentence for killing an adulterous woman. He persuades a painter to lure his wife into an affair, but Rosalia proves to be more faithful than he expected.

Serafino, a young and innocent shepherd, inherits a huge fortune. He immediately starts spending the entire sum on presents for his friends, causing the envy of his family.

Maruzzella is in love with Salvatore, who in turn is infatuated with Donna Carmela, Maruzzella's stepmother. As if that were not enough, Carmela deprives Maruzzella of her inheritance. When Salvatore comes to visit Renato, his old poor and needy schoolmate, the situation takes a strange development.

A police inspector comes into contact with people of all types and dispositions during a grueling murder investigation.

Bruno Fioretti, known as "Mandrake", is an inveterate gambler who never misses a day at the horse racing track in Rome. He is doubly unlucky: he bets too much on one horse, and his wife is sleeping with his best friend because Mandrake is always at the track. Penniless and cuckolded, Mandrake decides to make one last bet.

A crusty recluse on a Caribbean island who is dedicated to destroying sharks gets involved in a hunt for buried treasure.

Train operator Andrea Marcocci has to witness the suicide of a desperate man who jumps in front of his train. Under the influence of this shock he starts making mistakes. A check up by a doctor reveals that he's at the brink of becoming an alcoholic. Due to this evaluation he is degraded and must accept a salary cut.

Three episodes of varying pitch and quality. In the first a maid plans the elimination of her lover's wife with him, but she doesn't enjoy the fruits of victory. In the second (The patrol) a soldier of the Foreign Legion neglects his duties for running after a prostitute. The third segment has as its protagonist a general of the belle époque that goes on a date.

Andrea Zaccardi has returned home from hunting. He and his wife Luisa are very close. Their young son Giulio develops a cough. The doctor recommends the seaside. Luisa leaves with Giulio for several weeks. Andrea stays to work at the metal shop.

Various sketches centered on alcove stories.

An actor fails to find success in the film world but falls in love with a theatre manager's daughter.

Anna Zaccheo is a beautiful young woman from a working class Neapolitan family. Her main concern is to find herself a suitable husband. She meets a young sailor Andrea one day and gets engaged to him. But while she is waiting for Andrea to return from the navy she gets raped by her boss. Her life suddenly takes a downward spiral.

Stefano, a singer struggling for success, falls for Maria who, however, is pregnant with a child from another guy. Stefano leaves her but when he becomes a star, he looks for her and marries her.

Story of the owners (Mastroianni and Schygulla) of a fancy nightclub in Budapest before and during WWII.

La Sciantosa is part of a project created by writer/director Alfredo Gianetti for the Italian TV. The objective was to portrait a hundred years of Italian history through three movies, all of them with Anna Magnani. The other two are "1943: un incontro" and "L'autmobile". In this first movie, La Magnani is Flora Torres, a "sciantosa" (kind of a small stage diva) who is forgotten during the WWI, living only to remember her past glory. One day she receives a letter to present herself to the high command. There, Flora is called to go to the front and entertain the troops. Along with her maid Cristina, Flora goes to the front. There they are welcomed by the young private Tonino (Massimo Ranieri). Flora starts to act like a prima donna, making absurd demands to everyone. But when she is about to present herself, the vision of the wounded soldiers makes her change her way

An office employee, pretending to be weak and crippled, reveals himself as a ruthless criminal.

An unworthy nephew, with the help of a girl who seduces the young guardian, robs the aunt of the family jewels. He also manages to put the blame for the theft on the caretaker, engaged to a young woman who is actually the woman's natural daughter. The thief also tries to blackmail his aunt by threatening to reveal the truth after so many years, but a commissioner manages to prove the innocence of the suspect and the guilt of his nephew.

A violin player is going to be father of a sixth child by his second mistress, Marisa. Quite nervous about that, he does not leave the clinic... except to drive Giulia, his legitimate wife, along with his legitimate kids to the station as they leave for a vacation at the seaside.

Rome, 1870. Opponents of the church power are being sent to prison. Some of the exhausted prisoners are asking for the mercy of Pope. Others, like Augusto Parenti, prefer to fight for their rights until the end. His wife, Teresa is a simple woman, who gets involved with the rebels.

In this romance, a middle-aged playboy finds himself running his father's fur business after his father's death. He continues to allow his papa's mistress to run the business. The playboy's fiancee gets pregnant and he refuses to marry her. She dumps him in favor of his best friend. Soon the selfish man finds himself deserted by all his friends. He winds up involved with his father's patiently waiting lover.

Marcello, the scion of a noble and rich family, is morbidly obsessed with his mother, Countess Elisabetta di Tarcento. When she dies, things go haywire as people around him reveal their true identity and he gets a new motherly companion.

Deep South Italian seventies. The performing and penniless sales representative "Tano" Avallone, fell in love with the beautiful Mariangela, sixteen-year-old daughter of the widowed lawyer "Totonno" Fortis Pantaleo. In order to approach the girl, he enters the graces of the professional, posing as his childhood friend and saying he is willing to eliminate the elderly Donna Mercedes, mother of these, so that he can inherit the substances. Guest of the family, Tano finds himself involved in a whirlwind of feminine attentions, including the free-range governess Immaculate, unnecessarily coveted by the lawyer, and the servant Sisina, desired by the parish priest.

The mental illness affecting young Dario, one of the two sons of the Dominici family living in a council building in Rome, disrupts the lives of all its members.