...And the Wild Women

Magnani is at her most pungent as a defiant inmate in this women-in-prison picture, which costars Giulietta Masina as an innocent young woman whose romantic naiveté has made her an unwitting accomplice to burglary. The jaded jailbird takes the terrified novice under her wing for an introduction to criminal culture—lessons her pupil will learn perhaps too well. A compare-and-contrast exercise in the personas and styles of two great Italian actresses, the film ultimately belongs to Magnani, whose flamboyantly brazen performance is tempered with glimpses of a wounded and conflicted soul.