This seemingly atypical Visconti film is a satire on urban life and amother's unrealistic ambitions for her daughter. Anna Magnani gives abravura performance as a simple working-class woman who earns pin moneyas a "nurse," giving cut-price injections to localhypochondriacs. She enters her daughter in a Cinecittà talentcompetition which offers her a chance to fulfill her dreams through herchild. Andrew Sarris writes, "The neo-realist theories of CesareZavattini can be detected around the edges as a horde of mothersdescends upon a studio with their precious little darlings, but oneneeds an extraordinary degree of sociological concentration to peeraround anything featuring Magnani's emotional thunderbursts. She becomesa loving lioness, and her maternal fury is a glory to behold as shecomes to accept her hopelessly untalented and ungainly child, who isnonetheless beautiful in an introverted sort of way. She builds up heremotional force very slowly and solidly in a series of scenes in whichthe many facets of her womanly nature are brilliantly illuminated."The film masterfully evokes two distinct, contrasting worlds: theartificial, glimmering one of Cinecittà Studios, and thedesperate but genuine one of tenement life.