Fellini established his international reputation with this film based on his own memories of life as a young man in Rimini. The heroes, spoiled sons of the middle class, are described by Fellini as "mothers' pets... They shine during the holiday season and waiting for this takes up the rest of the year. But they are also friends to whom I wish well." The New Yorker review notes, "The group suggests an American wolf pack. There is Fausto the flirt (Franco Fabrizi), who will become another unhappy, middle-class family man; plump, ludicrous Alberto the buffoon (Alberto Sordi)... Leopoldo the poet (Leopoldo Trieste), whose naive artistic illusions wilt when he is propositioned by an ancient homosexual actor; and Moraldo (Franco Interlenghi, who a few years earlier had been one of De Sica's two great child stars in Shoeshine). Fellini's autobiographical hero, he is the only one who finds the guts to say goodbye to this futile provincial life. There was, as yet, no indication that the road Moraldo took would lead to the corruption of La Dolce Vita...."