In the "suburbs" of Rome-thosehousing estates, built with great fanfare by the Fascists, which quicklyand not surprisingly degenerated into slums-a poplana, Angelina (AnnaMagnani), struggles to feed her five children on the meager pay of herhusband, a low-ranking police official (Nando Bruno). When ever-risingprices reach a breaking point, Angelina leads a mob of angry housewivesin the storming of a pasta warehouse. She becomes the troop leader for adevoted band of followers on all manner of civic issues-a veritable Joanof Arc of the streets, and a threat to the authorities. "AnnaMagnani plays the part as no one else in any country could do,"wrote Vernon Jarratt in The Italian Cinema. "She constructs acharacter that is intensely human, a memorable portrait of a woman ofthe people, crude, shrill, with a flow of invective in the choicestRomanesque and a heart of gold where her family is concerned." Withits mixture of neorealism and "comedy Italian style"frankness, and its marvelous minor characterizations of shopkeepers,housewives and policemen, the film creates a frame for Magnani'senthralling performance.