Peddlin' in Society

The main attraction of the film is to watch Anna Magnani and Vittorio de Sica act together, and they alone raise the film to some level of classical comedy. It is really a tragi-comedy, because Anna Magnani is outrageously rich from her black market business during the war, and she learns the hard way that money does not bring esteem or respectability but only makes you vulnerable to parasites and vultures. There are some hilarious ironic scenes in the den of the so called aristocrats, all frauds, who cheat her out of all her money by their sanctimoniously affected manners to cajole and trap her in their racket, they are all splendid caricatures of fake snobs and adulating freaks. Anna Magnani herself dominates the film by her overwhelmingly splendid acting, going from something of a queen and primadonna of smugglers to the real down to earth Anna Magnani with a firm realistic grip on the facts of life. The other great comedian of this film is John Garson as the fat Californian soldier Lucky Brandy (!), who adorns the film by his fluent Italian with a very American accent making it hilarious, especially for Italians, probably. Vittorio de Sica adds style to the film as the count whose palace she is renting and who also has to face sinister facts of reality. In the final scene the film suddenly turns romantic and beautiful, enhanced in charm by some lovely street musicians, illustrating the return to basic reality from the false illusions of a luxurious but meaningless and superficial life of delusions.