The Bicycle Thief is "the most important film of the immediate postwar period," according to film historian Georges Sadoul. Scripted by Cesare Zavattini, it relates the story of a poor man and his son. In order to get a job as a bill poster the man must acquire a bicycle; he does, but it is stolen. The remainder of the film consists of their ironic and despondent search for survival. An American company wanted Cary Grant to play the lead, but De Sica and Zavattini instead chose a factory worker, Lamberto Maggiorani. New York Times critic Bosley Crowther wrote that The Bicycle Thief "ranks for all-around greatness with any picture made."