An old woman finds a baby among the cabbages in her garden; she takes care of him and calls him Totò. When she dies, he is sent to an orphanage, which he leaves as a teenager. When Totò goes out in the world, he expects everyone to be open-hearted as himself, but they aren’t. Without belongings or a place to live, he soon turns up among other homeless people, living scattered in boxes and cement pipes on a vast, barren field outside Milan.
Director: Vittorio De Sica. AKA Miracle in Milan
Writers: Cesare Zavattini, Vittorio De Sica, Suso Cecchi d’Amico, Mario Chiari, Adolfo Franci.
Stars: Francesco Golisano, Emma Gramatica, Paolo Stoppa, Guglielmo Barnabò, Flora Cambi, Brunella Bovo, Alba Arnova, Anna Carena, Virgilio Riento, Arturo Bragaglia,
1951 Cannes Film Festival – Winner of the Grand Prize of the Festival.
1951 New York Film Critics Circle Awards – Winner Best Foreign Film.
1953 BAFTA Film Awards – Nominated for Best Film From Any Source.
1953 BAFTA Film Awards – Nominated for Best Foreign Actor (Francesco Golisano).
Francesco Golisano as the character Toto’ is often confused with the comedian Toto’.