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Un Uomo Ritorna (aka Man's Return and Revenge) tells the tale of an Italian power-plant engineer (Gino Cervi) who finds himself jobless upon his return from WWII. With no other means of support, the embittered protagonist goes to work for the black market, selling contraband cigarettes. From this vantage point he can observe the desperation of his countrymen, who were unwilling to have anything to do with wartime collaborationists when times were good but who'll work with and for anyone when times are bad. A lesser example of postwar Italian neorealism, Un Uomo Ritorna ends on a more optimistic note than one would first suspect. Its box-office appeal in the U.S. was enhanced by the presence in the cast of Anna Magnani, who is given top billing.