When Italy surrenders to the Allies, part of the Italian army is dispersed and soldiers begin to return to their homes.

A combination of a satire on war and a comedy with war as the background. It tells of the ordinary people living on a Naples sidestreet, from 1940 to 1950 under the dominance of the Fascists, the Nazis and then the Allies occupation forces. Primary among the citizens is Gennaro Iovine (Eduard De Filippo)who has a penchant for innocently getting into trouble, and his friend Pasquale (Toto.) The latter is a rail-sweeper who becomes a professional stand-in...a corpse used to conceal contraband...serving jail time for those who don't care to spend the time to do the time...a substitute at a political rally when violence threatens the scheduled speaker

Carlo Rutelli falls in love with the beautiful variety singer Yvonne la Nuit, but his father opposes the wedding. World War I breaks out and Carlo is killed while Yvonne has a son, but on orders from Carlo's father, she is told he is dead. Her career descends and only Nino, an art partner, remains close to her and helps her earn her living by singing in taverns.

Carlo Rutelli falls in love with the beautiful variety singer Yvonne la Nuit, but his father opposes the wedding. World War I breaks out and Carlo is killed while Yvonne has a son, but on orders from Carlo's father, she is told he is dead. Her career descends and only Nino, an art partner, remains close to her and helps her earn her living by singing in taverns.

Three beautiful seamstresses from one of the fashionable dress salons near the Piazza de Spagna in Rome gather on the steps of the square to eat lunch and talk of their love lives. Marisa, the oldest in a large family, is engaged to a truck driver; Elena lives with her widowed mother and is in love with an opportunist, Alberto, who is also romancing the boss's daughter; Lucia lives on the outskirts of Rome, where a small-in-stature jockey worships her but, she, however has eyes for only tall men, and keeps many of those on a string.

(Includes spoilers) VILLA BORGHESE is a film consisting of six vignettes (cut to five in its U.S. release) that are all set in the Roman park that bears that name. All the episodes take place within one day. The first episode, taking place early in the day, is called "Servant Girls and Soldiers" and is a trifle about a couple of guys trying to put the makes on a couple of young girls. The second piece is called "The Greek Letter Pi" and is a poignant little anecdote about a schoolgirl (Anna Maria Ferrrero) who is urged by her classmates to approach their Greek professor (François Perrier), so that they can photograph them kissing and perhaps blackmail the prof for a passing grade. It turns out the professor has a sad story to tell the girl…that he is going blind. The tearful girl cannot go though with the plan. The third episode is the funniest and probably the best in the film. It's called "Incident at Villa Borghese" and features tour-guide Vittorio De Sica as an incorrigible over-cologned woman-chaser who comes between Giovanna Ralli and her furiously jealous boyfriend Maurizio Arena. The dramatics that ensue among the three…and others…is absolutely hilarious. In one delicious moment, De Sica sits in the car with the boy on one side of him, screaming at the girl, and the girl's breasts on the other side, pressed against De Sica's face as he barely conceals his lust. In "The Marriage Arranger" Eduardo De Filippo is the father of a girl he is trying to marry off. The discussions between the relatives center on rather selfish interest…money, dowry. Then the increasingly ill-at-ease girl is revealed to have a handicap, involving her foot, and the young suitor comes to the emotionally distraught girl's side and, through simple humanity and kindness, saves the day in a way the crude relatives were not capable of doing. Of all the relationships we witness in the film, this is the only one that seems to have a future. "The Lovers" is a bittersweet episode about a man breaking up his affair with a married woman…as the woman's small children play in the park with their nurse and call out to their adulterous mommy. It is nicely acted by two great stars of the French cinema, Micheline Presle and Gérard Philippe. The final racy episode, "Beauty Contest," is a Felliniesque dissertation about two rival Roman street–prostitutes, who as they are about to be rounded up by the police, wind up at a Miss Cinema beauty contest taking place in the park. The younger of the women (Eloisa Cianni) eludes the police by going off with an older man in his car. The other and older one (Franca Valeri) is not so lucky and the episode and the film end as she is driven off in a police vehicle. It is late at night.
The movie was released in the United States in 1957, inexplicably, in a French-language version, which didn't match the content, despite the presence of some French performers. It was retitled IT HAPPENED IN THE PARK. Furthermore, the first decent-enough episode was shorn, also inexplicably, because the film was already a short one. The direction by Gianni Franciolini is subtle and finely-tuned throughout, and the ensemble of actors in the production makes, of itself, a worthwhile experience of the movie, which should not remain as forgotten as it is.

Tribute to Naples, where director De Sica spent his first years, this is a collection of 6 Napolitean episodes : a clown exploited by a gangster ; an inconstant pizza seller (Sofia) loosing her husband's ring ; the funeral of a dead child ; the gambler Count Prospero B. defeated by a kid ; the unexpected and unusual wedding of Teresa, a prostitute ; the "professor" Ersilio Micci, a "wisdom seller".