The same year as La bugiarda (The Lying Woman), Comencini directed the film which he disliked – with reason – Il compagno Don Camillo. (…) “I was involved in the collapse of the company which had successfully produced Mariti in città [Husbands in the City], Mogli pericolose [Dangerous Wives] and Le sorprese dell’amore [The Surprises of Love]. Rizzoli was a major creditor and, on the documents, as a guarantor, was my signature. After much negotiation, Rizzoli said to me, with a kind of mischief: ‘We will cancel this debt with a stroke of the pen and you will make me a Don Camillo for nothing, more or less’. And that is what happened”. Thus Comencini found himself obliged to make the fifth episode in the endless series, an episode all the more disappointing since it responded to no necessity, apart from the commercial, and which from the political point of view expressed a weariness and lack of invention. (…) Viewing the film coolly (…) we can see it with less severity and note that Il compagno Don Camillo is not without rhythm and some quite amusing moments, for instance the scene in which the Italian priest manages to instil a little courage in the Ukrainian father, and it is clear that, in the little village on the banks of the Don, he has begun a war “all’italiana” between the priest and the chairman of the kolkhoz. In fact, the film is made with a certain authority.

Jean A. Gili, Luigi Comencini, Gremese, Rome, 2003