Roaring Years

Roaring Years (Italian: Gli anni ruggenti) is a 1962 Italian comedy film directed by Luigi Zampa, set in the 1930s during the Fascist period of Benito Mussolini. It stars Nino Manfredi and Gino Cervi, and was inspired by the satirical comedy "The Government Inspector” by Nikolai Gogol.

It won Best Feature at the 1962 Locarno International Film Festival.

The film portrays the corrupt administration of an Apulia town during the Fascist Regime of 1937, after it has learned, in a roundabout way, of a pending anonymous visit of a government inspector from Rome. The inspector will determine if the administration adhered to the government's strict guidelines for economic and social planning.

The threat of the inspection creates terror in the administrators, who fear their misdeeds will be revealed. Most fearful are those guilty of enriching themselves from public funds, and other abuses. They resort to pathetic staged measures to make it appear that they remained "honest administrators" and "good fascists".

An unsuspecting insurer also coming from Rome, Omero Battifiori, arrives in town for his work and he is mistaken for the inspector. He is made the object of every honour and, of course, he is utterly deceived. Eventually, the real inspector arrives.

The movie was shot entirely in Ostuni and Alberobello.[citation needed ]