She killed for her secrets, then died for her hope — Italian neorealism before it was cool.
Anna, a woman with a troubled past, marries an honest worker at the SIMA mechanical workshop, who provides her with a decent life despite financial difficulties. Blackmailed by a man who knows about her past, Anna loses her mind and kills him. Sentenced to ten years in prison, she dies in childbirth while giving birth to a baby girl.
Acting
Assia Noris's descent from composed to unhinged is genuinely haunting.
Direction
Camerini stages working-class Rome with documentary-adjacent authenticity.
Director
Mario Camerini
Assia Noris
Anna Roberti
Piero Lulli
Gianni Castelli
Carlo Campanini
Agostino
Emma Baron
Clinic nurse
Amina Pirani Maggi
Owner of the 'Pensione Gallini'
Emilio Cigoli
Anna's defense lawyer
Giuditta Rissone
Marcello Mastroianni
Extra
Dhia Cristiani
Clara
Osvaldo Genazzani
Sandro
Carlo Micheluzzi
Mr. Bini
Antonio Battistella
Enrico Balducci
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This predates canonical Italian neorealism by several years, yet shares its obsession with working-class dignity and systemic cruelty. Camerini was technically making 'white telephone' films but clearly itching to get his hands dirty.
Assia Noris was one of Italy's biggest stars of the era — casting her in this grimy tragedy was like if 1940s MGM let Judy Garland play a factory worker who murders her blackmailer. The dissonance is the point.
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