A film about the underworld that is the closest Felliniwould come to film noir, Il Bidone is closer still to La Strada andNights of Cabiria-a sadly ironic study of the misuse of the humanability to relate. Augusto (Broderick Crawford) and two cronies, Picasso(Richard Basehart) and Roberto (Franco Fabrizi) practice a desperate ifwickedly humorous kind of con, posing convincingly as men of the clothin order to trick credulous peasants with a "buried treasure"scheme. Another favorite ruse is collecting down payments from slumdwellers on non-existent housing. But like the saps they swindle, thethreesome see a more prosperous life of crime all around them, one thatis quite out of reach. The American tough-guy Broderick Crawford is inhis element as the spent criminal who is more in his element in acostume cassock than in the fast-paced gaiety of a Roman new year's eve.Fellini takes the far view to emphasize the aridity of the physical andthe social worlds, in a film that despite some sly comedy recalls earlyAntonioni.