The director of this movie Mario Monicelli, who made movies and wrote scripts for more than 65 years, gives us an insight into Italian politics by presenting this satire of an attempt of a coup d'état by some fascist officers. This script was written by Agenore Incrocci who wrote more than 100 scripts and who worked practically as long as Monicelli. The state pensioners of the glorious war sing their old songs as if Mussolini was still alive. They do not understand that their actions will be considered as pranks. However Italian politicians can turn the events into their favour and at least democracy will be saved in a rather crumbly way. The Italian officers act like in an Italian opera without singers. They have their gatherings as in good old times and they think they should reverse the fragile Italian democracy. At the end they will succeed but things do not happen as they had foreseen... This movie is a brilliant comedy about the way of life of the Italians and their politics seen through the eye-glass of a director who lived through it in experiences from his youth. By user IMDB