But that's not the reason why I declare this film as the best melodrama, but because I identify with the character Salvatore. Yes, this film is the best European melodrama I've seen, even the best in the world, much better than the Indian ones with Raj Kapoor. I'll have to watch a few other melodramas I saw as a child and compare, but from what I can judge now as an adult, it's the strongest. I'm thinking of other films like the English "Our Mother's House" (1967), the French "The Adventures of Remi" Original title: Sans famille (1958), the Greek "The Shoe-Shine Boy" Original title: O loustrakos (1962) and another Italian "Misunderstood" Original title: Incompreso (Vita col figlio) (1966). The child Edoardo Nevola is extraordinary in the role of the orphan looking for his mother, and the director Glauco Pellegrini shows a very good knowledge of the human soul. Alida Valli is convincing in the role of the mother who abandoned her son, and Francisco Rabal is very good in the role of the man who wants a son. I saw the prolific Spanish actor Francisco Rabal in important films, true masterpieces, such as "Viridiana" (1961), "L'Eclisse (1962), "Belle de Jour" (1967), "The Desert of the Tartars" (1976). "Since I've been here in Rome I've always felt the need to steal and it's the atmosphere that's to blame", is a nice line at minute 58.30, said by the orphan boy Salvatore, to the thief played by Memmo Carotenuto. And the scene in which Salvatore provides a marionette-voice for a mother pining for her lost son, alongside marionette-theatre operator Gennaro, played by Eduardo De Filippo, it's extremely moving.
