Oh! Wait. I got caught up in the 'truce' thing, but this does sound familiar to me. How about you?
We would see this movie on television in the late 1960s. It was set in World War Two, and I remember a British officer was given the task (punishment?) of taking custody of a group of Italian POWs. There was no truce. There were three or four memorable scenes.
1) There was something like a basket, but shaped like a ball. Perhaps the Italians had to clean up a beach or field or something. Somehow the ball/basket dropped, and one of the prisoners bounced it up with his knee, like a soccer ball. Everyone stopped, British and Italian, as they tried the 'ball' again, and then they wildly started a soccer match. (Very amusing, not as a joke, but because the audience recognizes the tendency for Europeans to drop whatever they're doing to play soccer.)
2) There was a long sequence in which the British officer decides a latrine is needed, and orders the Italian officer to have his men dig the hole and build the latrine. The prisoner officer doesn't want to do it, he feels like this is insultingly beneath the Italians. I won't ever forget how he is almost dripping tears as he yells "I will NOT BUILD a LAT-RIN-A!"
3) But, because of some deal making, or wheeling and dealing, the Italians do build a fine latrine. The British officer walks over, somewhat triumphantly, and with great dignity, and inspects it, and before he can pronounce it to be satisfactory, he (as always, with great dignity) slowly sits down, out of sight, to give it a test run.
4) By the end of the film, they all are friends and have mutual respect. The Italian POWs are heading to a train to be transported somewhere, and the Italian officer turns and smiles at the British officer who smiles back. The Italian runs to the train and disappears as the film ends.
Is this to what you were referring? (Sorry to not have a name -- I did a search based on the officer's resemblance to David Niven, but couldn't get anything yet.)
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