Dandyish antiques dealer Alfredo Martelli, is arrested on suspicion of murdering his older, far wealthier lover. But as the increasingly Kafkaesque police investigation proceeds, it becomes less important whether Martelli actually committed the crime as his entire lifestyle is put on trial.

A wicked social satire, Elio Petri’s feature debut has a clinical and detached stylishness that echoes the ideological apathy among the bourgeois class in post-war Italy. The masterful Marcello Mastroianni once again excels at portraying morally questionable characters that nevertheless elicit pity.