In his first film, Fellini shared directorial credit withAlberto Lattuada. Critics have traditionally attributed the film'sidiosyncratic tenor and imagery to Fellini, although as film historianMira Liehm writes in Passion and Defiance, "both of them wereintrigued by the Pirandellian unknowable worlds and by the existentialquest for identity...the multiple personalities of...protagonists caughtin a tangle of frustrations." Certainly we can find in VarietyLights prototypes for the downtrodden eccentrics and comic grotesques,and the mood of pathetic humor, that would fill Fellini's films right upto Ginger and Fred. The story deals with a motley troupe of small-timevaudevillians led by the incorrigible dreamer Checco (Peppino deFilippo), who fancies himself impresario and lothario in one. Hisfiancée, Melina (Giulietta Masina), bears the brunt of hisridiculous conceit when he betrays her for Liliana, whose star is on therise. Fellini introduces Masina in a role she would own for years tocome: the only one among the clowns who never wears a mask.