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if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

A trio of con-men lead by a lonesome swindler must deal with their job and family pressures.Bosley Crowther called it "a cheap crime thriller." He added, "For this film, which is often mentioned in estimations of the master's works, is notable as a false step in his movement toward the development of a type of story material ... But it contains some very strong Fellini phases and accumulations of moods that make it well worth seeing. And it is generally well played ... Broderick Crawford's performance as the swindler is heavy and sodden, with a particular flair for postured histrionics in the swindle scenes." I suspect that opinions have changed since Crowther's day and people are generally more positive. It may be a "cheap crime thriller", but I happened to really enjoy that aspect -- the three cons who are so depraved they will even pretend to be the Church to rob from the poor. And then we get the beautiful contrast of their home lives. These are not three evil bachelors, but men who have wives and children. Does that make their crime worse?

Watching Fellini's Il Bidone is a frustrating experience as there are moments when it comes tantalisingly close to being a masterpiece yet its few shortcomings ultimately ruin it.A subversive film, it undermines the audience's expectation that the corrupt protagonist will ultimately redeem himself. Indeed, it is the ambiguous ending that is the film's greatest strength. Was the swindler intending to return the money later on or was he really going to keep it for himself as his colleagues suspect? It is the central character's moral journey that provides the interest in this film and, when the narrative focus shifts from this to the meandering subplots, particularly in the middle section, the audience quickly loses interest. This problem is exacerbated by the uneven pacing throughout.Also problematic is the ridiculous, almost farcical nature of some of the early scams that play on the Italian peasants' subservience to the Roman Catholic Church. Rather than appearing as clever, they ultimately feel rather mundane, due to poor directorial choices.This causes problems for audiences from Protestant or secular countries already deeply cynical of the power of (genuine) bishops, particularly Catholic ones and means one is less inclined to feel sympathy for the gullible rural folk. Hence, one is more likely to read this film against the grain as an indictment of the power of Catholic Church and the subservience of the peasants to bishops. Perhaps the film's depiction of the power a man can have merely by virtue of his role in society provides a rallying call to those wishing to eliminate the position of bishop from the Church and make it a true society of equals.The fact that those who wear the costume of bishops in this film are but mere swindlers may point to a clever disguise, since bishops are so revered in society or it may be an illusion to the fact that, under the clothes, swindlers and bishops are cut from the same cloth and there is no real difference in their actions.In terms of the role of gender in this film, it is the women who provide the voices of innocence and purity whilst the males are corrupt. The saintly girl with polio is, of course, the film's moral heart and it is she who comes the closest to saving the villain. Indeed, he recognises her goodness when he notes she does not need a bishop and he flinches away at her touch as he is so corrupt himself.To a lesser extent, the impact his actions have on his maligned daughter set him heading down his new moral path much earlier in the story, whilst the peasants, as noted above, are guilty only due to their gullibility and subservience to the authoritarian nature of the Roman Catholic Church.The idea of the failed moral journey is reinforced by the symbolism at the end of the film: the protagonist slips down the slope and eventually finds, with his back broken, there is no way to climb back up it, just as he has found he has been unable to restore his own morality. Abandoned by his colleagues, he faces God and death alone in a desert-like environment. He is no Christ - he is dying for his sins, not for those of another. He has, in fact, failed to even be a Robin Hood, by preying mostly on the naive and poor and being unable to return money even when his conscience tells him to do so.The lighting and camera work in this film are surprisingly rudimentary but there is a stark simplicity to many of the scenes, such as lone tree in the field near the buried treasure, the aforementioned final moments at the slope and the beautifully rendered depiction of the daughter alone in the crowd outside the police station, all of which server to reinforce the idea of the barrenness' of the protagonist's soul.It is unfortunate that the poorly-written middle act, farcical cons and pacing problems do so much to undermine this otherwise interesting film and subversive film. The excellent final act simply cannot overcome these problems, nor can the aforementioned subtext of the continuing domination of Roman Catholicism in post-War Italian society. This, then, remains a rare failure on the part of Fellini.

What a sad film. Broderick Crawford heads a small band of con men but is getting too old and pathetic for the game. He is brilliant in the role and we barely sympathise with him once as he gradually fades away. The men are wretched to their women. There is a woman in the front car seat who gets thrust into the windscreen to accommodate a hoodlum getting or out behind her and another forced to strip by a bunch of guys at a party. The only moments where any sort of humanity show through is when Crawford decked out as a priest gets told the wonder of life by a young crippled girl he is about to ruin. I guess things must have been bad in Italy after the war and actions such as squeezing life savings out of peasants seemed fair game but it is wretched to watch grown men stoop so low. Great film making though and Fellini is so assured a prison sentence is dealt with by use of a fade. Hardly a feel good movie but well worth seeing.

The middle chapter in Fellini's "trilogy of loneliness", made by a master between "La Strada" (1954), and "Nights of Cabiria," (1957), "Il Bidone" (1955) is less known, for long time simply forgotten (and I can't imagine why) but powerful, humorous, heartbreaking, and poignant film. Broderick Crawford, Academy Award winner for playing Willie Stark, a corrupt politician and a charismatic man in "All the King's Men" (1949), gives a compelling performance as Augusto, an aging con man, a leader of a trio of small time crooks who take advantage of poor and uneducated Italians in both country side and poor quarters of Rome. Augusto realizes at the age of 48 that his life of selfishness, greed, and wrongdoings only made his existence meaningless. Once in his life, he decided to con the con men in order to help his daughter whom he rarely sees but deeply loves with fulfilling her dreams of better life but a swindle gone wrong leads Augusto to the final scene of pain, both physical and mental, to loneliness and desperation. It is very much like "Nights of Cabiria" final scene but without eternal hope of Cabiria's smile… Technically, "Il Bidone" is a very strong film with memorable performances, including the smaller cameos. Fellini's directing is as satisfying as always and many scenes remind of his future triumphs (New Year party is a stunning sequence and brings to mind "La Dolce Vita", 1960 ). Nino Rota's music and Otello Martinelli's cinematography add to many pleasures of the film, one of them is Giulietta Masina who plays supporting role of Iris, the wife of Picasso (Richard Basehart), the younger con artist with a dream to become an Artist. Both, Masina and Basehart starred in Fellini's first chapter of "trilogy of loneliness", "La Strada" (1954).