The Return of Don Camillo (1953)

The films from the Don Camillo series were a favorite of mine even when I was only 10 or 12, despite many very adult themes - witness to the genius and timeless humor of writer Giovannino Guareschi. It's been a while but now that there's a restored DVD collection available (with some scenes I had never seen because they were cut from the dubbed release) we revisited the whole series and they do stand the test of time. Not only are they great comedy - physical as well as satirical - but they are also a kind of historic documents, capturing the soul of the time and region and politics like few others. The fact that much of the film is shot in a kind of realismo makes the absurd situations only the funnier!I'm not a religious man myself but Fernandel's portrayal of the stalwart, choleric and compassionate priest is captivating; one of the all-time great performances in film history.

The French comedian Fernandel made five films in which he played the priest Don Camillo. Unfortunately, I placed this film above the original film in the series on my Netflix queue! Yes, that means I haven't yet seen the first film, but fortunately the second one gives a recap of events leading up to the next film. And, I promise to see the first one ASAP! This film finds the priest being punished by the church for being so pugnacious. He's sent to a horrible parish--the top of a mountain where there are almost no people and those who do live there mostly just stay home. He has little to do and is bored. At the same time, his old town is NOT happy now that he's gone. Despite several townspeople hating him (especially the mayor), the rest of the folks are miserable and stop participating in church activities and the church falls into a state of disrepair. The bottom line is that the town, despite pushing him to be replaced, really wants him back.Eventually he is returned to the town and there are several crises that need his help. The one that persists throughout the episode is the problem about building a dam. The city needs it to stop flooding but the guy with the land is being stubborn and won't agree to let them use it. The communist mayor hates to admit it, but he needs Don Camillo's help--not just with this but with his oldest son. Unfortunately for Don Camillo, he can't just punch people and make things right and must rely on God's guidance through some tough times. And, not surprisingly, by the end, change takes place in the most unusual and unexpected ways--and with the most unexpected people.This is a nice, gentle comedy and it reminded me a bit of the Catanflas film "The Little Priest" (from Mexico). Both films feature very unconventional priests who sometimes resort to worldly solutions to problems. In the case of Catanflas, he might gamble--but all for God's glory. And with Fernandel, he uses his fists--but again, to God's glory. What makes this unusual, though, is that Jesus talks to him--telling him that this is NOT the way to solve problems! While this might seem a bit sacrilegious, it seemed pretty benign to me--and Jesus did not come off badly as a result.By the way, I was surprised that this was an Italian film. I naturally assumed that with Fernandel it would be a French language film and him speaking Italian surprised me, as I'd only seen him speaking French in the other films in which I'd seen him.

Sequels don't often deliver though people who should know better keep doing them - see Claude Lelouch and the sequel to A Man And A Woman for example - but one almost foolproof way to ensure they come off is to entrust them to an expert like Julien Duvivier, who manages effortlessly to continue the episodic life of that wonderful contradiction in terms the childlike strong-arm priest Don Camillo who finds nothing strange in chatting with God. He begins the film in exile but we know it's not going to last because Peppone needs Don Camillo like Laurel needs Hardy and so the stage is set for more conflicts and Lessons In Life Andy Hardy style with Peppone in the Mickey Rooney role and Don Camillo standing in for Lewis Stone. A more than satisfying film enhanced by the black and white photography.

At home we never tire of this, perhaps the best of the Don Camillo series. The characters are so perfectly drawn and the black and white photography is much more dramatic than colour! It gives a very true-to-life picture of the social and political scene in post-war Italy, with just enough exaggeration to have the spectators rolling in the aisles.