Difficult Years (Italian: Anni difficili) is a 1948 Italian drama film directed by Luigi Zampa and starring Umberto Spadaro,[1] adapted from the 1946 short story Vecchio con gli stivali (Old Man in Boots), by the Sicilian author Vitaliano Brancati.

As a member of the Fascist party, he however maintains contacts to his anti-Fascist friends who meet at the shop of the local pharmacist (Aldo Silvani).

Piscitello’s son Giovanni (Massimo Girotti) returns from the military service and hopes to take up an ordinary life.

He marries the daughter of the pharmacist Maria (Milly Vitale) but, as Italy allies with Germany’s war, he has to re-join the military.

In 1949, Lopert Productions hired playwright Arthur Miller to adapt an English-language version of the film which they had obtained rights in.