Operation San Gennaro is a 1966 film by Dino Risi, starring Totò, Nino Manfredi, Senta Berger, Mario Adorf, Enzo Cannavale, Dante Maggio.
Three Americans, one woman and two men, arrive in Naples to steal the treasure of San Gennaro. They ask for advice from the boss Don Vincenzo (Totò), who directs them to Armando Girasole, known as Dudù (Nino Manfredi).
The heist takes place on the night when the “Song Festival” monopolizes the attention of ordinary people and law enforcement in front of the TV. Everything seems to go smoothly except for one small but very important detail: the best guardians of the treasure are the Neapolitans themselves.
The songs presented at the Naples festival of the year the film refers to (1966) and which can be heard as background music in some scenes are:
- Ma pecché, sung by Iva Zanicchi;
- Ce vo’ tiempo, sung by Peppino di Capri;
- ‘A pizza, interpreted by Giorgio Gaber, who curiously paired with Aurelio Fierro at that festival.
The Neapolitan song festival that year was won by “Bella,” sung by Sergio Bruni and Robertino, as enthusiastically announced by “Il barone.”
Snubbed by national critics, the film was awarded for best direction at the Moscow Film Festival in 1967.
Paradoxically, in the popular imagination, the treasure of San Gennaro, despite representing seven centuries of donations from popes, emperors, queens, and kings and considered one of the most important treasures in the world, became famous and legendary thanks also to this film, even though obviously the places and masterpieces depicted in the film are purely fictional.
Indeed, when Dino Risi, by then in his nineties, came to the Museum of the Treasure of San Gennaro in 2006 to present the restored version of the film to the press, he confessed that before the filming of Operation San Gennaro, he had never been to Naples.
