The cast for this fable is fabulous:two great American actors ,Joseph Cotten and Bette Davis,two great Italian ones:Alberto Sordi and Silvana Mangano. Pepino and Antonia ,two Italian proles are waiting,every summer,for "the old lady",a wealthy and disabled American in order to fleece her.How? By playing cards with her in a game called "lo scopino scientifico= the scientific broom sweep" We 'll never know the name of "the old lady".They always refer to her like that.In fact ,she epitomizes capitalism.Bette Davis is wonderful and sadistically smiling all the way.Always with him,an old beau(her former lover?)whom she enjoys humiliating(brilliant Cotten). Against the Money Goddess,two miserable wops,(pitiful Sordi and authoritarian Mangano) always short of the readies,to whom the old one is always compelled to lend some dough to begin a game. And a game that will be the funniest ever filmed:the Italians begin to win,they win more,more and more and they want to call it a day?But the old woman is not prepared to accept it.She wants to play more,even after a heart attack!There's the rub:the money game is allowed to these who can go on and on indefinitely.That's Pepino and Antonia's downfall.They lose everything. As always in Luigi Comencini's movies,children are wiser than their parents.Cleopatra ,Pépino's elder daughter realizes that it's a foolish game,what can do two proles against the most powerful bank ?You've got to refuse such a game and start a realist fight.As far the Old Lady is concerned,Cleopatra will opt for the final solution,and,maybe ,her parents will come back to solidarity with their fellows. This is a must-see.This is a comedy of the first order,sometimes verging on tragedy ,Luigi Comencini equals Billy Wilder here,that means a lot!
Review of The Scopone Game
