SPOILER below!
This Gogol-drawn seriocomedy about a poor scrivener who can't get no respect—and eventually dies from pneumonia when the warm coat he'd so desperately needed is stolen from him (sorry for the spoiler but it's obvious very early on that the story is headed thataway)--is well-crafted but somewhat dated. Not so much in technique, but in the heavy-handedness with which all the protagonist's harassers (especially his pompous bosses) are caricatured, and the tears-of-a- clown schtick star Renato Rascel is allowed to indulge. He's decent enough, but there are times when you realize the film is just stopping to let him do the comic business local audiences would have then expected from a popular comedian, even in a change-of-pace more serious vehicle. Coming just after "Variety Lights," a success for himself and debuting co-director Fellini, "The Overcoat" shows some of director Alberto Lattuada's trademark strengths in depicting social milieus. He did a better job a decade alter with "Mafioso," which also got a much superior performance from another comedian in a more dramatic role—Alberto Sordi.
This Gogol-drawn seriocomedy about a poor scrivener who can't get no respect—and eventually dies from pneumonia when the warm coat he'd so desperately needed is stolen from him (sorry for the spoiler but it's obvious very early on that the story is headed thataway)--is well-crafted but somewhat dated. Not so much in technique, but in the heavy-handedness with which all the protagonist's harassers (especially his pompous bosses) are caricatured, and the tears-of-a- clown schtick star Renato Rascel is allowed to indulge. He's decent enough, but there are times when you realize the film is just stopping to let him do the comic business local audiences would have then expected from a popular comedian, even in a change-of-pace more serious vehicle. Coming just after "Variety Lights," a success for himself and debuting co-director Fellini, "The Overcoat" shows some of director Alberto Lattuada's trademark strengths in depicting social milieus. He did a better job a decade alter with "Mafioso," which also got a much superior performance from another comedian in a more dramatic role—Alberto Sordi.