In the Name of the Italian People

A young woman's body is found. The investigating magistrate Bonifazi quickly settles on the industrialist Lorenzo Santenocito. Santenocito is rich, arrogant and sure he cannot be touched; the magistrate is ready to work at the edges of the law to get him. The contest between them becomes more important than the crime. The real subject is not justice but the fact that neither man is right. The magistrate's moral superiority turns into a personal grudge, and this is where the harshest strand of Italian comedy operates: nobody is cleared, nobody is punished. Dino Risi directed. Vittorio Gassman plays Santenocito and Ugo Tognazzi plays the magistrate Bonifazi. The industrialist being willing to put his own father in an asylum is the film's most quoted move: he would sacrifice a member of his family rather than stand trial. The final scene is discussed on its own in Italian cinema. The moment the two men are left facing each other reduces the film's whole argument to a single decision. Who it is for: anyone who likes commedia all'italiana and the Gassman and Tognazzi pairing. Who it is not for: anyone wanting a clear outcome. The film vindicates nobody, the legal detail in the middle is heavy, and the woman exists only as the object of the crime.