This is an offbeat funny comedy ;although it is not really a movie made up of sketches ,it features four parts ,all of which could be seen separately.
Fans of Belmondo and Lollobrigida,arm up with patience cause they only appear after about 20 min,and they are almost absent in the first half.
Segment one :the human wreck and the wreck.
A father won't accept that he is getting old :a selfish former womanizer ,he ruins his sons with his extravagances:re-floating a wreck is another of his hare-brained ideas. The adventures of this burdensome parent serves as a main thread for the whole movie,in which he appears now and then ,before,resuming the leading part in the last segment.
Segment two: six husbands to find.
A brother ,back from sea ,could enjoy the pleasures of the harbor;"it's all good news !" says mama when she welcomes him.But nothing is so simple and the would be fiancés make life difficult for mother:"you are the man,with you,everything will be sorted out" ;in fact ,the Young guy cannot even enjoy his soup for every girl has got an insurmountable problem;the worst is the little sister's : her best friend's dad ,45,is in love with her,and he intends to marry her when she is nubile.
Segment three :a pearl before a swine.
Happy-go-Lucky sailor (Belmondo at his best)takes up residence in Margarita's (an apparently cast against type Lollobrigida,without the usual glamor)"boarding-house" .The stormy Relationship is smartly displayed with flashbacks,first only with Belmondo's voice over.
Segment four: dying on the vine.
A ship of fools with a caricature of a captain (the old man from the first segment ) and his so-called quarter master (Belmondo back to work) sail away with a cargo of wine on a troubled sea. An ending in the grand tradition of the Italian cinema: tragedy walks hand in hand with comedy.
