During that incredible period of extraordinary vitality in Italian cinema, from Neorealism to the end of the 1960's, many great directors ran the risk of being put into the shade by such giants as Fellini, Rossellini, Visconti and De Sica. Critical opinion in their favor diminished even more when some of these filmmakers, not forming part of that Pantheon, dared to take the comedic path, and obtained – repugnant during those years of myopic ideology – huge popular success.
