text: Like in many other Monicelli movies, the main theme of Amici miei is friendship, seen from a rather bitter point of view. It tells the story of four middle-aged friends in Florence who organize together idle pranks  in a continuous attempt to prolong childhood during their adult life.  Count Mascetti  is an impoverished noble who has no means to support his family, but does not renounce high living pleasures anyway, and has an underage mistress, Titti . Perozzi  is an easy-living journalist harassed by the unceasing disapproval of his wife and his son. Melandri  is a communal architect whose main goal is to find the ideal woman. Necchi  is the owner of a café and pool hall where the friends usually plan their zingarate. During the movie they are joined by a renowned, military-like surgeon, Sassaroli , in whose clinic they recover after being hospitalized, injured after a mismanaged zingarata. Melandri falls in love with Sassaroli's wife, exclaiming "I've seen Madonna!", only to discover she has psychological problems. The plot is mostly composed of elaborate practical jokes organized by the friends, including the creation of a fake mafia mob in whose "criminal acts'' they involve a pensioner, Righi , who used to snatch croissants from the cake tray in Necchi's café, and Mascetti's attempts to save his marriage despite his relationship with Titti. The film ends with Perozzi's death, which still does not deprive the friends of their desecrating hijinks, not even in face of their own mortality; perozzi himself makes a last joke to the priest. When Perozzi's wife, criticized by Melandri for her lack of tears, comments: "One can weep if somebody dies. But here nobody has died", Mascetti replies: "Well, in reality he had never been so much, but I liked him." During the funeral procession they "homage '' to their dead friend by telling the wide-eyed Righi that Perozzi was killed for being a traitor to the mafia.