Alberto Lattuada-Il Cappotto (1952)

An unassuming young municipal clerk, Carmine De Carmine, urgently needs a new overcoat as his old coat has grown rather shabby. Thanks to a stroke of luck, he is able to have a new coat made to measure by a tailor. However, the new coat totally transforms the poor clerk’s character, turning him from a shy, timid man into an audacious social climber. Eventually wangling an invitation to a New Year’s Eve party at the house of the Secretary General, he even manages to persuade Caterina, the mayor’s mistress, to dance with him. However, when the time comes to leave the party, he finds that a thief has stolen his coat… Minerva




Based on Nikolai Gogol's story with the location changed from Russia to Italy and the time changed to the present (1952), the story is about a poor city-hall clerk (Renato Rascel) whose only desire is for a new overcoat. The town Mayor (Giulio Stival) is planning a reception for some visiting VIP's in honor of a new, wasteful piece of construction. The clerk bungles his assignment and is fired. But he stumbles onto some bribery concerning the architects and, to keep him quiet, he's given his job back plus a bonus. He buys his long-cherished overcoat, and it makes him so presentable he wins newly-found respect from everybody. (http://imdb.com/title/tt0044474/plotsummary)




A good film, more interesting than any of Lattuada’s other works, a little patchy as a story but nevertheless coherent in its spirit, in its inspiration and in its poetic value. Together with Mulino del Po’ [Mill on the Po], this is Lattuada’s most complete and most carefully researched film, more the result of observation, reflection and intelligence than immediate poetic intuition. Its poetry lies in its structure, in the slow adherence of its parts, in its style and in its architecture. Resisting the temptation to indulge in a cold, logical, calculated description and a character analysis which could easily become a caricature - the clumsy clerk who is the victim of everybody’s jokes - Lattuada adopts a logic of observation, the point of view of the interpreter of Gogol’s precious and perfect text. (Edoardo Bruno, Filmcritica N° 18, 1952)