The film shows some of key streets and squares of Rome. The nerve point of the story is the condo building in viale delle Milizie 76, in the Prati neighbourhood where Antonio Bonocore (Totò) is a doorman and his friends Giuseppe Lo Turco (Peppino De Filippo) and Cardone, the painter (Giacomo Furia), live. The dome of St. Peter’s Basilica rises behind the building’s terrace where laundry dries on the washing lines.
An honest man, excellent doorman, Bonocore is given a heavy bundle by a dying man, holding an engraving kit to print banknotes and watermarked paper. The intention is to throw it all in the river Tiber from the bridge dell’Industria (identified by the ever-present gazometro of the Ostiense neighbourhood in the background) but at the last minute he changes his mind.
Part of the film takes place in rione Monti: Peppino’s print shop is in piazza degli Zingari while the bar where Totò delivers a speech on the capital illustrated with sugar is in piazza della Suburra next to Cavour metro station (inaugurated in 1955 just before the film’s release) which is where Totò tells Peppino about his ultra-secret plan. The third conspirator, Cardone a painter, works in piazza Gimma, in the Trieste neighbourhood: he is painting the shopfront window for a Sicilian bakery when the other two come along and recruit him.
The cigarette shop where Totò attempts to use the first banknote is in via di Monte Savello 29, steps from the Theatre of Marcello. The barracks where Michele, Bonocore’s son who is an officer in the tax police, is located in viale XXI Aprile 51 in the Nomentano neighbourhood and is actually the real headquarters of the General Command of the Guardia di Finanza.
At the end of the film, Bonocore and Cardone bury the suitcase with the engraving plate and watermarked paper amidst the ruins of Tor de' Schiavi in the archaeological area of Villa Gordiani on via Collatina. The closing scene with the bonfire was shot near the via Appia Antica.
The film shows some of key streets and squares of Rome. The nerve point of the story is the condo building in viale delle Milizie 76, in the Prati neighbourhood where Antonio Bonocore (Totò) is a doorman and his friends Giuseppe Lo Turco (Peppino De Filippo) and Cardone, the painter (Giacomo Furia), live. The dome of St. Peter’s Basilica rises behind the building’s terrace where laundry dries on the washing lines.
An honest man, excellent doorman, Bonocore is given a heavy bundle by a dying man, holding an engraving kit to print banknotes and watermarked paper. The intention is to throw it all in the river Tiber from the bridge dell’Industria (identified by the ever-present gazometro of the Ostiense neighbourhood in the background) but at the last minute he changes his mind.
Part of the film takes place in rione Monti: Peppino’s print shop is in piazza degli Zingari while the bar where Totò delivers a speech on the capital illustrated with sugar is in piazza della Suburra next to Cavour metro station (inaugurated in 1955 just before the film’s release) which is where Totò tells Peppino about his ultra-secret plan. The third conspirator, Cardone a painter, works in piazza Gimma, in the Trieste neighbourhood: he is painting the shopfront window for a Sicilian bakery when the other two come along and recruit him.
The cigarette shop where Totò attempts to use the first banknote is in via di Monte Savello 29, steps from the Theatre of Marcello. The barracks where Michele, Bonocore’s son who is an officer in the tax police, is located in viale XXI Aprile 51 in the Nomentano neighbourhood and is actually the real headquarters of the General Command of the Guardia di Finanza.
At the end of the film, Bonocore and Cardone bury the suitcase with the engraving plate and watermarked paper amidst the ruins of Tor de' Schiavi in the archaeological area of Villa Gordiani on via Collatina. The closing scene with the bonfire was shot near the via Appia Antica.
D.D.L.
