Ai margini della metropoli (1953) User Reviews

Justice For The Rich, Law For the Poor

[boblipton · 7/10 · 14 October 2023]

All the newspapers claim that Michel Jourdan killed his ex-lover, and his lawyer, Massimo Girotti tries to build his case on asking for clemency. Jourdan insists he is innocent, so Girotti does what investigating he can, with contact with witnesses forbidden him. Despite his fiancee being miffed because he seems to think an accused murderer's life is more important that me time, he and his typist, Marina Berti speak with Giulietta Masina, the mother of his child, and try to track down a mysterious woman called Greta. But they encounter suspicion in the collection of shacks and sheds where the witnesses live. After Girotti demolishes one of the witnesses, Giulio Calì, in court, Calì tells the men with his dog that he is, indeed, a wretch and hangs himself. Girotti doesn't understand. Signorina Berti shouts at him.

It all ends up with Girotti giving a great and passionate closing speech in court, arguing prejudice against the underclass and what in America would be called reasonable doubt. We never get to see the effects of this speech on the court, but in this obvious mix of neo-realism and a detective story, it doesn't really matter. The upper classes have wealth, position and certainty, while the poor hope in vain for enough work to sustain life.

Very predictable but still there are some good scenes!

[RodrigAndrisan · 6/10 · 17 October 2021]

It's not a masterpiece, it's just a simple melodrama. But, there are in the cast, very young here, an actress and an actor I saw in some real masterpieces: Giulietta Masina from two super masterpieces by Federico Fellini, "La Strada" and "Nights of Cabiria", and Massimo Girotti from another super masterpiece, "Last Tango in Paris" by Bernardo Bertolucci. The beautiful Marina Berti plays a convincing role. But the one that shines from the entire cast is Giulietta Masina.

A loose screenplay, but haunting atmospherics

[av-ankur · 5/10 · 10 July 2022]

This film reminds me of many British films showing the seamy side of life, with insecurities, poverty and being disadvantaged all leading to some inevitable tragedy. Most actors are solid here, except for a miscast Marina Berti. The story, however, is with a bit of gaping holes that the screenplay does nothing to cover up. All that said, there's a tinge of horror to the film just because of the camerawork and the shooting locales and sets. That the horror of a crime engendered because of poverty can weigh so heavy on the viewer is a feat achieved by only a very few director-cameraperson combos.

I didn't do it!

[ItalianGerry · 11 May 2004]

(Some spoilers) This atmospheric piece has all the hallmarks of a neorealist film within the conventions of a crime story. It is about one Mario Hari (Michel Jourdan) an unemployed worker who is wrongly accused of murdering a woman and who is defended by lawyer Roberto Martini (Massimo Girotti), who doesn't believe, for much of the film at least, that his client is innocent. The hapless man has a girl, Gina, and a child by her. The long-suffering woman (played by the marvelous Giulietta Masina before her great films with Fellini) and her hapless man get married while he is being detained in prison awaiting trial. She is the only one who truly believes in his innocence. Martini had been asked by a friend of Gina, Lucia (Marina Berti), to take the case, which he does with reluctance. As a by-product Lucia and the lawyer fall in love.

During the course of the movie, events come to light pointing to the man's being a victim of circumstance with no direct links to the murder, and, of course ultimately the true culprit is found when he kills someone else. We have fairly standard stuff here, even tedious and predictable. What gives the film a nice edge is the use of the many gritty location settings, the interesting secondary characters such as the old Neapolitan vagabond Cali', who asserts he saw Mario near the scene of the crime at the time it occurred. And of course the presence of Giulietta Masina is a great asset.

Director Carlo Lizzani was closely aligned with the Italian neorealist cinema at its start. He began as a film critic, wrote a history of the Italian cinema, was assistant to Roberto Rossellini on Germany YEAR ZERO and assistant to other directors until he made his first film as director, ACHTUNG! BANDITI, in 1951. The photography was by Gianni Di Venanzo, who would go on to shoot Antonioni's LA NOTTE and L'ECLISSE as well as Fellini's 8 ½.

A hopeless case for the innocent suspect and for the lawyer defending him

[clanciai · 8/10 · 12 November 2023]

A woman is murdered in the outskirts of the city among hovels and provisional building sites, where vagabonds live, and one of them has seen something. A man who was seen on the location is arrested, and there is a mass of circumstantial evidence pointing against him, while he insists he is innocent. Only his young wife (Giulietta Masina) with a baby believes and knows he is innocent. The attorney who is assigned his case can't believe he is innocent, but a friend of the young wife comes to terms with the attorney and gradually changes his mind. There are some terrific scenes, at the stadium when the police chases the escaped suspect, and in the later half in the shanty town with lots of spectators present for the final settlement, it is not a great film but very predictable, but it is worth watching for these scenes and for Giulietta Masina. The court proceedings are tedious, there is no real suspense, the action is rather commonplace, but the atmosphere and the environment settings are hauntingly fascinating, especially for the sake of the old tramp who plays on a saw, who actually becomes crucial for the drama.

Darkness on the edge of town

[dbdumonteil · 6 July 2011]

Lizzani reportedly said that the initial screenplay was based on the rape and murder of a little girl.The new re-written screenplay is not really satisfying :for instance the final speech for the defense is so unconvincing that the writers felt compelled to have the true criminals found and arrested at the same time.

On the plus side,there's a depiction of the wrong side of the town ,in the grand tradition of Neorealism ,and a sensational Giuletta Masina who steals every scene she is in ;there's an interesting character:the old man who plays " the saw" and whom the lawyer humiliates in public (and involuntary causes his death); a lawyer ,who ,unlike the ones you see in today's movies is not always irreproachable,even though he ultimately redeems himself.