Il bidone

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Cast & Crew

Broderick Crawford
Augusto

Richard Basehart
Picasso

Franco Fabrizi
Roberto

Giulietta Masina
Iris

Sue Ellen Blake
Anna

Irene Cefaro
Marisa

Alberto De Amicis
Rinaldo

Lorella De Luca
Patrizia

Federico Fellini
Director

Tullio Pinelli
Screenwriter

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Audience Reviews for Il bidone

• Mar 20, 2015

  This forgotten Fellini classic - which was initially a flop in Italy and also in the USA - is a poignant and heartbreaking character study that manages to make us feel pity and sympathy towards the worst kind of swindler, the one who deceives and takes money from the poor.
  Carlos M Super Reviewer
• Jan 09, 2010

  One of Fellini's least remembered films, "Il Bidone" is a wobbly tale about three con men who pursue some truly appalling schemes to bilk peasants out of their slim savings. Augusto (Broderick Crawford) feels uneasy about still scrambling for small-time games at his advanced age, and has a soft spot for a teen daughter whom he rarely sees. "Picasso" (Richard Basehart) has a good wife (the always wonderful Giulietta Masina) and dreams of becoming a painter, but is not as talented as he thinks. And Roberto (Franco Fabrizi) hopes to become a singer like his idol Johnny Ray. Their shenanigans include selling phony apartment reservations to slum-dwellers, exchanging shoddy coats for gas and an elaborate scheme which involves posing as priests and planting a worthless buried treasure on someone's property. Essentially, they pull the typical move of exploiting others' greed, and getting them to hand over money based on false promises of a bigger payoff later. The three are on shaky ground, however, and even their underworld peers don't always respect them. This is memorably shown in a scene at a richer criminal's posh party, where Roberto breaks rank to swipe a gold cigarette case and gets his whole group ostracized as a result. This incident somewhat foreshadows the film's depressing climax, where Augusto faces what could be his ultimate crisis of conscience. The script poorly wraps up its dangling threads, casually dropping Picasso and and Roberto from the story before the final act. And yes, Nino Rota composed the score as usual, but it's fairly humdrum beyond the opening theme. For an early Fellini film about regional seediness, you're better off choosing "Nights of Cabiria" or "I Vitelloni."
  

  Super Reviewer
• Mar 08, 2009

  don't feel like writing about it.
  Joey N Super Reviewer