Women's prison.

 

Author: Gerald A. DeLuca (italiangerry@gmail.com) from United States

13 August 2001

 

This film received only a minor release in the United States in a shortened and dubbed version and was shown intact only at some touring museum series many years later. That is a shame considering the stature of the two leading performers, Anna Magnani and Giulietta Masina, both of them great ladies of the Italian cinema. Their performances are riveting. 

 

NELLA CITTA' L'INFERNO is about an innocent housewife (Masina) who is falsely convicted of theft and is sent to a women's prison in Rome. There she is tutored in the ways of crime by her expert cell-mate (Magnani) and must live amid a company of prostitutes, murderers, and thieves. Their effect on her is not a positive one. Renato Castellani directed this lively piece, and Roman comedian-actor Alberto Sordi has a small role in it.