''Il bidone'' , ''The Swindle'', is a 1955 Italian

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

directed by

Federico Fellini Federico Fellini (; 20 January 1920 – 31 October 1993) was an Italian film director and screenwriter. He is known for his distinctive style, which blends fantasy and baroque images with earthiness. He is recognized as one of the greatest and ...

starring

Broderick Crawford William Broderick Crawford (December 9, 1911 – April 26, 1986) was an American actor. He is best known for his portrayal of Willie Stark in the film ''All the King's Men'' (1949), which earned him an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award. Of ...

Richard Basehart John Richard Basehart (August 31, 1914 – September 17, 1984) was an American actor. Known for his "deep, resonant baritone voice and craggy good looks," he was active in film, theatre and television from 1947 until 1983. He won two National ...

and

Giulietta Masina Giulia Anna "Giulietta" Masina (; 22 February 1921 – 23 March 1994) was an Italian film actress best known for her performances as Gelsomina in ''La Strada'' (1954) and Cabiria in '' Nights of Cabiria'' (1957), for which she won the Cannes Fi ...

Plot

In the country outside Rome, a group of swindlers dress up as clerics and con poor farmers out of their savings. Another scam in a shanty town is to pretend they are officials taking deposits for apartments. The proceeds are spent on flashy cars, champagne and nightclubs. One member of the gang, Carlo – nicknamed

Picasso Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...

in being an aspiring artist – pretends to his faithful wife Iris that he is a traveling salesman, but she gradually stops believing him. His conscience is pricked and he decides to quit. Another member is Roberto, who finds scamming poor people diverting and has fun spending the loot and going to parties, where he attempts to steal some jewels.The head of the gang, Augusto, meets his teenage daughter Patrizia who he has not seen for years, and his conscience is also awakened. However he is recognized in a cinema with her, arrested and jailed. When released he joins a new gang along with a sleazy man, Vargas, known as "The Baron". They repeat the clergy scam among peasants. After swindling a large sum out of a farming family in the windy appenine mountains, he talks, pretending to be a priest, to their sick teenage daughter. Her plight touches him, and when the gang come to share out the gains he says he gave it all back. A row develops and he is battered to the ground by Vargas and his cronies. Stripping him, the crooks find he has concealed the takings in his clothes. On a barren and rocky hillside, they leave him to a slow death. The next morning Augusto hears a group of peasant women with children passing close by, singing and whistling. His last words are "wait for me" before he dies.

Cast

as Augusto Rocco *

as Iris *

as Carlo * Franco Fabrizi as Roberto Giorgio * Sue Ellen Blake as Anna * Irene Cefaro as Marisa * Alberto De Amicis as Rinaldo *

Lorella De Luca Lorella De Luca (17 September 1940 – 9 January 2014) was an Italian film, television, and voice actress. One of the most recognized '' ingénues'' of Italian cinema during the mid-to-late 1950s, she is best known for having played naive young ...

as Patrizia * Giacomo Gabrielli as Il Baron Vargas * Riccardo Garrone as Riccardo * Xenia Valderi as Luciana

Production

Fellini had intended

Humphrey Bogart Humphrey DeForest Bogart ( ; December 25, 1899 – January 14, 1957), nicknamed Bogie, was an American actor. His performances in classic Hollywood cinema made him an American cultural icon. In 1999, the American Film Institute selected Bogart ...

for the role of Augusto, but, learning of Bogart being ill with cancer, finally chose Broderick Crawford for the part.

Reception

On the occasion of its nine-year delayed US premiere, critic

Bosley Crowther Francis Bosley Crowther Jr. (July 13, 1905 – March 7, 1981) was an American journalist, writer, and film critic for ''The New York Times'' for 27 years. His work helped shape the careers of many actors, directors and screenwriters, though some ...

gave the film a mixed review, calling it "a cheap crime thriller". He added, "For this film, which is often mentioned in estimations of the master's works, is notable as a false step in his movement toward the development of a type of story material ... But it contains some very strong Fellini phases and accumulations of moods that make it well worth seeing. And it is generally well played ... Broderick Crawford's performance as the swindler is heavy and sodden, with a particular flair for postured histrionics in the swindle scenes."

References

External links

*
''The Swindle'' (1955)
at

AllMovie AllMovie (previously All Movie Guide) is an online database with information about films, television programs, television series, and screen actors. , AllMovie.com and the AllMovie consumer brand are owned by RhythmOne. History AllMovie was ...

* * *
Il bidone
' at

The Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home video, home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films". A "sister company" of art film, arth ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bidone, Il 1955 films 1955 crime drama films Italian black-and-white films Films scored by Nino Rota Films directed by Federico Fellini Italian crime drama films 1950s Italian-language films English-language Italian films 1950s English-language films Titanus films Films about con artists Films with screenplays by Federico Fellini 1950s multilingual films Italian multilingual films 1950s Italian films English-language crime drama films Films with screenplays by Ennio Flaiano Italian-language crime drama films