The Swindle

A group of con men working around Rome dress as priests and sell poor farmers stories of buried treasure, and in the city pose as housing officials collecting deposits. The centre of the film is the unravelling conscience of Augusto, who leads them. Fellini made this between La Strada and Nights of Cabiria, and the three are sometimes treated as a trilogy. He wanted Humphrey Bogart for Augusto and cast Broderick Crawford after learning of Bogart's cancer diagnosis. Richard Basehart and Giulietta Masina are also in it. It premiered at Venice on 9 September 1955. The American release was delayed until 1964, when Bosley Crowther wrote a mixed assessment, calling it a false step in Fellini's development while granting that it has strong Fellini phases worth seeing, and finding Crawford heavy and sodden with real flair in the swindling scenes. Augusto trying to give the money back, then being beaten by his own men and left to die on a bare hillside, is among the bleakest endings Fellini ever shot. Who it is for: viewers curious about the less discussed part of early Fellini. Who it is not for: anyone expecting the balance of La Strada. The film is episodic and its first half is noticeably weaker.