Drawing inspiration from King Vidor’s powerful critique of urban life in The Crowd, De Sica worked with his screenwriter, Cesare Zavattini, on this unsentimental story of the plight of a pensioner cast out by a society in hot pursuit of its economic miracle. In his first film role, white-haired university professor Carlo Battisti plays Umberto as a proud and not entirely sympathetic loner who finds himself unable to maintain his already meager lifestyle. De Sica combines striking imagery shot in the streets of Rome (a rally with Umberto and dozens of other protesting retirees, the park where he walks his dog) with eloquent studio scenes (the huge hospital ward, the charity soup kitchen) to create a searing portrait of a society that has lost its convictions and compassion.