The Swindle

The Swindle (Il bidone, 1955) is a Federico Fellini crime drama you can watch online on iFILM, starring Broderick Crawford and Giulietta Masina. Three small-time con men travel the Italian countryside dressed as priests, running scams on people who have almost nothing to begin with.

Augusto is the oldest of the three — experienced enough to know exactly what he is, not experienced enough to figure out how to be anything else. His younger partners, Picasso (Richard Basehart) and Roberto, are still young enough to imagine getting out. Augusto keeps moving. The jobs get harder to stomach and the returns get smaller, but stopping would mean adding up a life that doesn't add up.

Sandwiched between I Vitelloni and Nights of Cabiria, this is the Fellini film that tends to get skipped — which is a mistake. It is the coldest and most unsentimental thing he made in that period, a portrait of a man rotting from the inside while keeping perfect posture. Stream The Swindle (1955) online on iFILM.