A woman in her thirties is a single mother of a teenager daughter, and both are in love with the same young soldier. Mother sacrifices herself for Maricchia's marriage, but ultimately falls to her own passion, leading to family disruption.
Based on the Nikolai Gogol story but set in 1950s Italy, "The Overcoat" is the story of a poor city hall clerk whose only desire is to buy a new overcoat.
In Italy, Checco Dal Monte manages a troupe of traveling performers with plenty of heart but minimal talent. At a small town engagement, he encounters the starry-eyed, gorgeous Lily Antonelli, and hires her as a dancer on the show. Vivacious Lily quickly sells out crowds and earns the resentment of Checco's mistress, Melina Amour, but the fledgling performer has far bigger ambitions and soon sets her sights on a higher-profile role.
The real masterpiece, among these early works by Risi, is certainly 1848 . Made to order for the centenary of the Milan uprising against Austrian rule, the film opens with a group of soldiers apathetically attending the dress rehearsal for a ballet at La Scala. Who knows if Visconti remembered it for the opening of Senso at the Fenice in Venice - when he certainly had in mind a little film directed by Corrado D'Errico in 1941, La Compagnia della teppa , in which a group insurgents use a Rossini premiere at La Scala to launch leaflets against the Napoleonic occupation.
Giovanni used to be a humble, mild-mannered government clerk whose life was turned upside down when he met Giulio, a notorious forger who at once set about manipulating the over-confident man. Giovanni did what he should never have done: he associated himself with the crook. Giulio soon laid hands on Giovanni's money, ruined his career and manhandled him into marrying his own mistress, the beautiful Ginevra. It was of course an unhappy marriage but Giovanni found a little solace when his son Ciro was born. Seven years later though, Wanzer resurfaced...
Among others, Ernesto returns to Turin after the war from a German POW camp; his household destroyed and family deceased, he tries making an honest living.
It seems that Zarre (Guido Celano), the man chosen to be the jockey for the Lupa contrada, and fiance' to Fiora (Leda Gloria), becomes enamored of a cafe' chanteuse. Bachicche, the jockey of a rival neighborhood, wants to get even with Zarre for a past offense and enlists the help of the chanteuse, Liliana (Laura Nucci).
