The Gold of Naples
The Gold of Naples ( ) is a 1954 Italian anthology film directed by Vittorio De Sica. It was entered into the 1955 Cannes Film Festival. In 2008, the film was included on the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage’s 100 Italian films to be saved, a list of 100 films that "have changed the collective memory of the country between 1942 and 1978." Plot
The film is a tribute to Naples, where director De Sica spent his first years, this is a collection of 6 Neapolitan episodes: a clown exploited by a hoodlum; an unfaithful pizza seller (Loren) losing her wedding ring; the funeral of a child; the impoverished inveterate gambler Count Prospero B. being reduced to force his doorman's preteen kid to play cards with him (and losing regularly); the unexpected and unusual wedding of Teresa, a prostitute; the exploits of "professor" Ersilio Miccio, a "wisdom seller" who "solves problems". Cast

"Il guappo" ("The Racketeer")
 Totò – Don Saverio Petrillo
 Lianella Carell – Carolina, Saverio's wife
 Pasquale Cennamo – Don Carmine Savarone, the squatter
 Agostino Salvietti – Gennaro Esposito, the graveyard mourner

"Pizze a credito" ("Pizza on Credit")
 Sophia Loren – Sofia
 Paolo Stoppa – Don Peppino, the widower
 Giacomo Furia – Rosario, Sofia's husband
 Alberto Farnese – Alfredo, Sofia's lover
 Tecla Scarano – Don Peppino's friend

"Funeralino"
 Teresa De Vita – The mother

"I giocatori" ("The Gambler")
 Vittorio De Sica – Count Prospero B.
 Pierino Bilancioni – Gennarino, the young gambler
 Lars Borgström – Federico, the doorkeeper
 Mario Passante – Giovanni, the butler
 Irene Montaldo – Countess B. "Teresa" ("Theresa")
 Silvana Mangano – Teresa
 Erno Crisa – Don Nicola
 Ubaldo Maestri – Don Ubaldo

"Il professore"
 Eduardo De Filippo – Don Ersilio Miccio
 Tina Pica – The elderly lady
 Nino Imparato – Gennaro
 Gianni Crosio – Alfonso Maria di Sant'Agata dei Fornai

Release
The original Italian release comprises six segments: "Il guappo", "Pizze a credito", "Funeralino", "I giocatori", "Teresa", and "Il professore". The US version omits the third and the sixth, leaving the following: "The Racketeer", "Pizza on Credit", "The Gambler", and "Theresa". Paramount did not take up its option to release the film in the United States and it wasn't until February 1957 that the film was finally distributed there, being shown at the Paris Theater in New York for 18 weeks, earning the distributor, Distributors Corporation of America, $72,000. The film was voted one of the Ten Best Foreign Language Films of 1957 by The New York Times. References

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1950s Italian-language films
1954 films
Italian black-and-white films
Italian anthology films
Films directed by Vittorio De Sica
1954 comedy films
Films set in Naples
Films produced by Carlo Ponti
Films produced by Dino De Laurentiis
Italian comedy films
Films with screenplays by Cesare Zavattini
Films scored by Alessandro Cicognini
1950s Italian films