A delightful vignette of short stories, expertly woven in a continuity, with the common thread being the Judge of the small town court. The movie is a comedy-satire, till the last story, which brings a lump in throat, from a very prolific director, Steno.

The story, as the name implies, are the stories of various cases that are brought in the court, and the strictly-by-book judgement given by the main protagonist, the judge, that is till the last case.

The cases (except the last one),is each highly comic, but, as the initial screen says, and I agree to it, are possible in real life, though need not be tried on the same day at the same court.

The Judge, pronounced sentences, despite agreeing even on record, that the guilty party wasn't really guilty, but was forced to do minor misdemeanor, that too due to circumstances beyond his control.

For example a man was forced to walk naked, when his clothes was confiscated by a policeman, who had been called back to station, before he could return the clothes and arrest him for nude bathing in a lake where he wasn't supposed to (in sea, was hinted to be OK). In fact to protect his modesty, the man remained hidden in the bushes till it was dark, and then only ventured out. Or the priest, who too didn't do anything wrong, and was caught up in a gambling-den brawl, neither initiated, nor participated by him, and in fact he saved a woman from her downfall. But the code said that these people were guilty, and sentence were pronounced, though may not be too harsh. There are two glorious women in the cast, that is at least two, Sophia Loren as pick-pocket, and even more comely Silvana Pampanini, the faded superstar, now keeping a lodge, both (probably) to boost income, indulging in the oldest profession. It hints on that even the strict judge becomes fallible, when some one close to his heart, arrives as an accused, and then he forces himself to relook at the ethics of the law itself. Gripping movie, well knit, can be watched as comedy, or as satire, and re-look as life, as the judge tried to.

IF you want to see Sophia Loren as she was in her prime, when she was playing small roles in Italian movies but had an I'll-make-it look in her eyes, you might want to see one vignette in the four-episode Italian film, "A Day in Court".

It is a vignette in which Miss Loren plays a pocket-picking prostitute who carelessly lifts the wallet of a pleasant young priest in a bus. This leads to her pursuit, recriminations, a hassle between her procurer and the priest and a show-down session in the courtroom, which is the hub of the four episodes.

That's the extent of this small segment, and all Miss Loren has to do is pretend to some slight dramatic posturing and show off her nicely tailored form. But she does it about as nicely as a bit player might be expected to do, and the historic significance of the vignette is slightly enhanced by the presence of a youthful, smooth-faced Walter Chiari in the role of the priest.

But this very slim historic interest is the only recommendation to this film, which is a feeble collection of theatrical trivia, as it surely was when made in 1953 by Steno, a director distinguished mainly by his name. The various episodes, all flat and foolish, center in the court, presided over in serio-comic fashion by Peppino de Filippo as a municipal judge. Alberto Sordi, Tania Weber and Silvana Pampanini show up in other episodes, but you may be sure the film was not released in its time to capitalize on their attractiveness. You guess why that is.