Ladro lui, ladra lei (Dieb hin, Dieb her)

The notorious petty criminal Cencio (Alberto Sordi) is released from prison in Rome. His childhood sweetheart Cesira (Sylvia Koscina) has more or less got by as a shop assistant without giving in to the advances of her superiors. Cencio wants to impress her with a campaign of revenge and enlists Cesira as a helper in his scams. As a director, Luigi Zampa occupied a key position in the transition from neorealism to commedia all'italiana, which is expressed just as exemplarily in this crook play as the conflicting nature of his ambitions: Ladro lui, ladra lei once again tells of the struggle for survival of the poor before Italian comedy reinvents itself in the face of the economic miracle - a balancing act between serious concern and mischievous amusement, embodied in exemplary fashion by Sordi. (Christoph Huber)

Photo: Austrian Film Museum