Eva Vanicek	Bianca
Cosetta Greco	Elisa
Antonella Lualdi	Milena
Marcello Mastroianni	Ugo
Bruno Berellini	Carlino
Irene Cefero	Clara
Adolfo Consolini	Maciste
Anna Maria Ferrero	Gesuina
Gabriele Tinti	Mario
Aldo Collaiti
Wanda Capodaglio	The Madame
Garibaldo Lucii	Staderini
Andrea Petricca
Mimmo Maggio
Mario Piloni
Ada Colangeli
Giuseppe Angelani
Grazia De Rocca
Rolando Sbrocchi
Giuliano Montaldo	Alfredo

About in 1925, Mario, a young Florentine printer, to be closer to his fiancée, Bianca, goes to live in the brief Corno street and he makes friends with the faruer “Maciste”, his landlord, and with the greengrocer Ugo, antifascists both. It happens that Alfredo Campolni, owner of a grocer’s shop, having refused to pay certain contributions to the party, is wildly beaten up by the fascists. At the bedside of the Campolmi, at the hospital, Mario often meets his wife, Milena, friend of his fiancée, Bianca, and he falls in love: he breaks up the engagement with Bianca. In a nighttime conflict with the member of a Fascist action squad, Maciste is killed; Ugo, wounded, shelters in the house of the “lady”, an usurer that controls the affairs of the region. Being in love with Gesuina, the young maid, Ugo, once cured, marries her. Alfredo Campolmi dies too: Mario and Milena have confessed their love, but, for pity toward the dead, they break up. Later Mario too is halted by the police.

PRIZES

Silver ribbon for the best music and scenography.
Special prize of the jury at the Festival of Cannes (1954)

CRITIQUE

Coral play, with some narrative uncertainty, but of strong emotional impact, drawn by the homonym novel of Vasco Pratolini (by Sergio Amidei, Giuseppe Dagnino, Massimo Mida and by the director), of which the more socially interesting characters are privileged people: the printer Mario (Tinti) and the fiancée Bianca (Vanicek), the anitfascists Ugo and Maciste (Mastroianni and Consolini), the storekeepers Milena and Alfredo (Lualdi and Montaldo). (P. Mereghetti “Dizionario dei film 1998”, translated by Alice Castoldi)

NOTES

Realized in a political moment fo great tension, it had some problems with the censorship and the distribution, and it didn’t get the export license, in despite of the assignement of the special prize of the Festival of Cannes’jury.