Synopsis
When elderly pensioner Umberto Domenico Ferrari returns to his boarding house from a protest calling for a hike in old-age pensions, his landlady demands her 15,000-lire rent by the end of the month or he and his small dog will be turned out onto the street. Unable to get the money in time, Umberto fakes illness to get sent to a hospital, giving his beloved dog to the landlady's pregnant and abandoned maid for temporary safekeeping.
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Cast
- Carlo BattistiUmberto Domenico Ferrari
- Maria Pia CasilioMaria
- Lina GennariAntonia, la padrona di case
- Elena ReaLa suora all' ospedale
- Memmo CarotenutoIl degente all' ospedale
- Ileana SimovaLa donna nella camera di Umberto
- Alberto Albani BarbieriL'amico di Antonia (uncredited)
- Lamberto Maggiorani(uncredited)
- De SilvaBattistini (uncredited)
- Pasquale Campagnola(uncredited)
Recommendations
- 100
Christian Science Monitor
The credo of Italy's fabled neorealist movement was that movies rooted in real, unadorned experience carry more dramatic impact than studio concoctions can dream of, and this 1952 masterpiece exemplifies that argument brilliantly. - 100
New York Daily News
Universally appealing story that plays as well now as it did on opening day a half-century ago. Maybe better. - 100
Chicago Reader
This is truly a great film, recently celebrated at length in "My Voyage to Italy," Martin Scorsese's documentary about Italian cinema. - 100
Los Angeles Times
Creates magic of a completely different sort. It makes the unlikeliest subject unforgettable, finding drama, beauty, even poetry in simple things and simple lives. - 100
TV Guide Magazine
One of the greatest films of all time and one of the handful of masterpieces to emerge from the Italian neo-realist period, Umberto D is as cerebral as it is emotional, as bleak as it is warm. - 100
Chicago Tribune
A film that lets life flood into our souls. - 90
New Times (L.A.)
De Sica's 1952 neorealist masterpiece; it's a stark snapshot in which all is revealed about the "daily life of mankind," as the director once offered by way of description. - 80
Variety
The ending is happy, but the general effect of the film is disturbing, so compelling is De Sica's description of a man's solitude.
