Turn-of-the-century Naples. Salvatore Ruotolo and his wife are murdered and their bodies are found in different locations. Since the evidence points to a crime by the Neapolitan crime organization, the Camorra, fear and corruption cause serious hindrances to the investigation by police authorities. In charge is a young and courageous judge who, using evidence discovered by chance, tries to reconstruct the story of the double murder. The plot that the judge must unravel is very complicated. Many people are questioned, even those apparently above suspicion. Deciding to get to the bottom of the matter, the judge keeps all the suspects under arrest, causing a backlash of public opinion. But in the face of passive resistance which he finds everywhere, even from his own colleagues and family, he begins to feel discouraged and is about to give up the investigation when a new piece of evidence comes to light. The information causes the death of an innocent man, but it revives in the judge the conscience of his own responsibility. He carries on with the case regardless, even if it means placing under house arrest the entire city. –IMDb
Luigi Zampa (Rome, January 2, 1905 – Rome, August 16, 1991) was an Italian film-maker. Son of a worker, Zampa studied film making from 1932 to 1937 at the Italian film school Centro sperimentale di cinematografia in Rome. He directed several Italian neorealism films in the 1940s. In 1949 he filmed in UK the British film Children of Chance, which he remade in Italian the following year as Campane a martello. During the 1950s and 1960s he became a director of several successful films belonging to the Commedia all’italiana genre, some starring Alberto Sordi. —Wikipedia