This is the Italian equivalent to "Good-Bye Mr Chips" but with more sentimental stress and also with political statements. Maestro Perboni has socialist sympathies and writes articles in a socialist paper, which gets him into trouble with the school authorities which are forced to suspend him - this is 1894, and in those days harmless pacifistic socialism was considered a menace to society. His students object strongly to his suspension, and fortunately he has an ally among the other teachers, Maria Mercader, who succeeds in restoring him to his students, who adore him and have treated his successor with cruel but laughable practical jokes. The film is very tender, the boys are all simply adorable with all their individual traits and stories, and Maestro Perboni (Vittorio de Sica) does appear to be the ideal teacher. It's a lovely heart-warming film and a great complement to the Chips legend, but this is perhaps more realistic and less dreamy, while its romance is more palpable. The novel by Edmondo de Amicis is a classic in Italian literature, it has been filmed a number of times and also made into a 6-hour TV version, and it has always remained popular in Italy. It is in brief an indispensable evergreen in Italian cinema, and some scenes were actually directed by de Sica himself, while at the same time he directed "Bicycle Thieves". But for him like for the professor in the film, the boys are the main thing here.
