In an adaptation of the nineteenth-century writer of farce Eduardo Scarpetta, Totò and fellow Neapolitan Enzo Turco play an impoverished writer, Felice, and an equally poor photographer, Pasquale, constantly bickering as they attempt to ply their respective arts. Their friend Eugenio, son of a marquis, convinces the two to pretend they are aristocrats when he goes to ask for the hand of his beloved Gemma, played by Sophia Loren. The resultant double crosses, mixed messages, and coincidences are handled with exquisite comic timing. The humor is based on a central theme in the Neapolitan theatrical tradition: hunger. (The spaghetti scene is legendary.) "All the Totòisms are there: transgression, language, aristocracy, lewdness, and above all gluttony (in) scenes magnificently mounted by Mattòli at the height of his talent." (René Marx)