(1952) Awestruck provincial clerk Leopoldo Trieste's Roman honeymoon plans go sour when bride Brunella Bovo goes missing, even as his family is waiting in the lobby for that first meeting en route to a papal audience. But super-fan Bovo's first priority is to meet her idol, "The White Sheik," hero of her beloved fotoromanzi (photographed comic books). But when she finally arranges a tryst with "The Sheik," actor Alberto Sordi isn't quite what she expected. Sordi's "marvelous performance" (Pauline Kael) launched his international reputation, after 15 years in movies (including as Oliver Hardy's Italian voice). Fellini's solo directorial debut includes a fire-eater practicing at dawn at a deserted fountain, a memorable cameo by Giulietta Masina as the friendly prostitute Cabiria (five years later star of her own Fellini masterpiece), and his first collaboration with composer Nino Rota. Story by Fellini, Tullio Pinelli, and Michelangelo Antonioni. DCP restoration. Approx. 83 min.