A dramatic story about a marginalized couple. He is an alcoholic reporter she an ex-prostitute. Their attempts to rebuild a life together fail and they only manage to get married when she is on her deathbed. Alida Valli sings “Ma l’amore no” by Giovanni D’Anzi. Alida Valli, in the role of a “fallen” woman, achieves all the effects with an amicable simplicity of means. There is no gesture or phrase that is not humanely justified. She remains a real woman at the variety theatre and in the old people’s home. Her emotion, ingratitude and rebellion are real. Her clothes and mistakes are real. She acts so well that you don’t realise she is acting.

Anonymous, in “Corriere della Sera”, 25.11.1942