The Moralist

Agostino Cerini is the newly appointed secretary of a morality organisation. He weeds out nudity in films, nightclubs, indecent magazines, one by one. He gives no ground on morals and enjoys giving none. But there is another life in the evenings: he has a stake in most of the businesses he is banning, and he is making money from them. The post gives him the power to choose which competitor gets shut down. The film is about what moral policing is actually for and whose pocket it works for. Giorgio Bianchi directs the comedy, with Alberto Sordi as Cerini. Ninety-three minutes, with Vittorio De Sica and Franco Fabrizi in the cast. It was made in 1959, while Italian censorship was still very much in force.