Sembrando ilusiones

It was Bette Davis last great film and in the States we don't even know it exists. I think it was released in secrecy under the title "The Scientific card-player" and if I'm not wrong dubbed in English, I wonder who was the marketing genius behind that move. The film is a tragicomic gem. Bette Davis speaks a few words in English and the very few words in Italian she utters where dubbed but, I swear to you I thought it was her. The work of the dubber is astonishing. Totally seamless. I hear she didn't get along with Alberto Sordi, what a surprise. She referred to him as "Mr. Sordid". But beyond those little trivia things, let me tell you, it's a wonderful film. Alberto Sordi, one of the greatest but practically unknown in the States, gives a sensational performance. A brutally comic, full of pathos tour de force. Silvana Mangano playing an under proletarian is a delight and Joseph Cotten is Joseph Cotten in the loveliest possible way. I haven't mention what the film is about and I'm not going to. I couldn't do it justice. Try to find it somewhere. You'll thank me, but don't bother, the pleasure was all mine.

A masterpiece from Luigi Comencini. Another masterpiece of an unrestrained cinema that was (for a very long time) inspired and remarkable; Full, alike life... alike a work of art. Luigi Comencini's 'Lo Scopone Scientifico' is entertaining, funny, touching but also sharp, intelligent and intensely sad; it reflects the conditions of many of us: defeat, ignorance and inequality. It's a radiography on how persistent poverty creates a self-perpetuating cycle within the impoverished classes. It speaks of today's democratic societies! Check it out! You'll be amazed how much (today!) you can read out of this movie...Do you know what happens at this very exact time in our history? I'll say it again, check it out, watch this film, you'll know it. Wake up Folks!

Another of those Alberto Sordi black comedy's which reveals his acting excellence ! As usual it always the poor,humble and(too) honest Italian trying to get rich the easy way,(to satisfy more his wife's ambitions than his own) but his efforts has disastrous consequences !! As the previous commentator wrote, it is the usual fable of the little Italian who 'dares' to challenge the high and mighty, but ultimately fails miserably.....the moral being everyone must remain to their stations, if you're born poor don't reckon you can fight the rich and get away with it !A typical Italian way thinking especially in the 1950's and 60's. The quality of this film is only further confirmed by the presence of such high calibre Anglo-American artists as Bette Davis and Joseph Cotton.Surely they would never play in a rubbish European film ! European films (as all U.S. actors know) pay poorly , bur often offer great roles....surely good for their future careers ! A great film....but best appreciated if you are familiar with South European more's and culture.A 8 vote from me.

One of the previous respondents compares Commencini's work on this film to Billy Wilder, and I can't agree more. In fact, this yarn reworks Sunset Boulevard into a full-bodied Italian comedy about how the tyrannical rich use their money to string along the poor and humble.

Remember, there was a card game in Wilder's film too! Here, Bette Davis, as poised, professional, and grandly self-assured as ever, is the Norma Desmond character. She's shrewd, not crazy, but she's got everyone twisting their lives out of shape to humor her in much the same way. Joseph Cotten is the Max von Mayerling character - the artist who threw away a brilliant career to serve this imperious creature. The twist is that Commencini replaces William Holden's wry screenwriter, Joe Gillis, with Alberto Sordi and Silvana Mangano as the poor couple who've unwittingly staked their lives on whatever they can get from the old lady. Ultimately, of course, it's not just them, but their entire neighborhood who Davis is leading on her merry chase -strictly for her own amusement. The twist at the end is just as perfect, in its own, thoroughly Italian way, as the finale of Wilder's film.

Absolutely delightful - especially the wonderful body (and facial) language of all four principals at the cardtable. They could have kept it up twice as long and it would have been just as amusing. Four expert screen actors, directed to perfection.

Can the bizzers-in-charge PLEASE find a decent print of this and DVD it right away?

Fairy tales are usually dark but very rarely are this human or that funny for that matter. Bette Davis plays a wealthy American with an addiction to card playing and to winning. She has become an expert on the local card games of different countries around the world where she owns houses. Bound to a wheel chair, the card games are her only close connection with the world of the living. In Rome, the card game is called "scopone" and she summons a married couple to be her adversaries. The couple, a magnificent Alberto Sordi and an unrecognizable Silvana Mangano, are the poorest of the poor, with a family of five children. As soon as Bette arrives to Rome, she calls them and gives them one million lire to play with. Sistematically, every year she will win the million back. Sordi and Mangano spend the rest of the year practicing, dreaming that one day they will win. The building up to the climax is one of the most painfully funny things I've ever seen. Pathetic and uplifting at the same time. Bette Davis is superb as the capitalist torturer/benefactor with a great Alberto Sordi at her side. Try not to miss it.