The Widower

A Rome industrialist whose business is failing realises that the money belongs to his wife and that he is being humiliated daily. She thinks him openly incompetent. He decides there is only one way out: to kill her. The film is not interested in the murder plan. It is interested in the comedy of humiliation: the man Alberto Sordi plays is neither able nor brave, but believes himself a great industrialist. The cruelty of the film lives in that gap. The form belongs to the hardest vein of comedy Italian style: ridiculous scenes lead into an attempted killing, and the ending leaves the comedy somewhere cold. Dino Risi directed. Franca Valeri plays the rich wife who belittles her husband constantly, and her lines are among the most quoted in the film. Who it is for: viewers who like Italian comedy, Sordi and black humour. Who it is not for: anyone looking for a sympathetic character. Both of these people are repellent and the film rescues neither.