Details

Release year: 1955

Storyline

A trio of con-men led by a lonesome swindler must deal with their job and family pressures.

Top credits

Directors

Federico Fellini

Writers

Cast

Broderick Crawford — Augusto Rocco
Richard Basehart — Carlo
Giulietta Masina — Iris
Franco Fabrizi — Roberto Giorgio

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Did you know

• This film is both a stand-alone movie and the centerpiece of Federico Fellini's unofficial "trilogy of loneliness", preceded by La Strada (1954) and followed by Nights of Cabiria (1957). All three are key works marking the last great moments of Italian neorealism, which was waning as central figures like Roberto Rossellini and Vittorio De Sica moved to different genres. In the 1950s, he still held the neorealist conviction that nothing is more dramatic than the lives of ordinary people transferred to the screen with a minimum of embellishment.

• Nino Rota subsequently reused a fanfare from the musical score for this film in Fortunella (1958).

• Federico Fellini originally had intended Humphrey Bogart for the role of Augusto, but, learning of Bogart being ill with cancer, finally chose Broderick Crawford for the part. Fellini took full advantage of that when he cast Anthony Quinn and Richard Basehart in La Strada (1954) and then invited Basehart back for this movie along with Crawford, who had won the Academy Award® for Best Actor with his work in Robert Rossen's political drama All the King's Men (1949). Crawford's scowling face and burly frame were ideal for the immoral Augusto, and Basehart complements him with an innocent handsomeness.