Magnani adapted the boisterous comedy of her irreverent stagerevues to the gentler, sadder aspects of neorealism in this 1949 film.It is the tale of a Roman housewife who innocently thwarts her lucklesshusband's efforts to make a dishonest living. As in many a pungentcommedia all'italiana, the setting is a harsh one-poverty, unemployment,and the petty crimes of a man caught between economic pressures andfamily devotion. Still, New York Times critic Bowsley Crowther foundthis portrait of the little guy to be something of a cross between ReneClair and King Vidor's The Crowd. He wrote, "A gentle and fragilepoignancy runs through the salty sidewalk vigor of its comicalepisodes...Here we have, subtly injected into the picture from time totime, a beautiful comprehension of the spirit of innocence in a world ofstress." Magnani's warmth and coarseness are a perfect foil for thetaut misery of Massimo Girotti (best known to American audiences as Ginoin Visconti's Ossessione, a film which probably should have co-starredMagnani!)