Aging small-time conman Augusto works with two younger men: Roberto, who desires to become the Italian Johnny Ray, and Bruno, nicknamed Picasso. Through a series of mishaps and personal entanglements, things go badly for Augusto.
I had no idea, until recently, that Broderick Crawford had ever done this film and he's really quite good. He ("Augusto") leads a trio of grifters who take the low hanging fruit. They have no scruples about robbing the vulnerable, ordinary folks - and are quite imaginative when it comes to their scams. Set against a backdrop of a still recovering post-war Italy, there is an effective cynicism about the way the plot and the characters develop. Crawford works well with sidekick Richard Basehart's "Carlo" but his is the stand out role. The rest of the film does run a little to typical crime-noir stereotype, but the photography that marries the bleak with the beautiful, and a superb score from the always reliable Nino Rota give this more of a grandeur. I wasn't mad on the ending - it was just too easy, too predictable and somehow underwhelmed Crawford's otherwise really quite nuanced performance. It tugs well at our heart-strings at times whilst offering a soupçon of humour and is a film that demonstrated a talent in the star I wasn't expecting.