Probably no Italian comedy director deals asconsistently, or as well, with disillusionment and dignity as MarioMonicelli. Risate di gioia follows on the heels of Big Deal on MadonnaStreet and La Grande Guerra, taking the theme out of the ghetto or thebattlefield and into the arena of cinema itself in depicting the failedillusions of two broken-down bit-players at Cinecitta. The film markedthe reunion of Magnani and the great comic Totò, her revue costarof the forties. In an adaptation of two novels by Alberto Moravia, themarvelous Magnani portrays a hapless would-be actress who becomesimplicated in a theft by a retired extra (Totò) and a youngpickpocket (Ben Gazzara) with whom she falls in love.