Best-known for lighter fare (often with an edge of social criticism), here Italian director Luigi Comencini reaches back a couple of decades to channel a Neo-Realist vibe, specially Vittorio De Sica’s. Not just any De Sica classic, either, but the most famous one, BICYCLE THIEVES; and with that film’s main writer Suso Cecchi D'Amico on board. Another father/son story, even the ages similar, though these two leads considerably spiffed up: Father not gaunt & defeated, but a big, strong handsome guy (with a temper), home after the death of his young wife (hit by a truck crossing a street in Rome); the son no funny-looking urchin, but a tousle-haired kid with more attitude than love for a Dad he hardly knows. Raised by grandparents who let his school grades slip, and tagging around with a surrogate father who makes a bare living with odd-jobs, the situation is further complicated since the mother and this ‘Uncle’ developed serious, if unconsummated, feelings for each other. No surprise where this is going, confidently put across by Comencini. Even so, at best, it’s no more than a reasonable facsimile of De Sica. Like the films some critics accuse De Sica of making: soft & sentimental, with convenient character development. None of these faults even remotely true of De Sica, but entirely true of Comencini.
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: Naturally, BICYCLE THIEVES/’48, beautifully restored on Criterion; avoid Public Domain editions which are often titled THE BICYCLE THIEF. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2008/05/bicycle-thieves-1948.html
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