It seems the sun never rises in Alberto Lattuada’s Senza pietà (US: Without Pity), a tale of mutual despair in the nocturnal chaos of Italy immediately following World War II. With nearly every scene taking place at night, often outside in the streets, Lattuada’s film showcases how film noir and Italian neorealism can bring out the best in each other to create the kind of extreme-drama atmosphere in which desperate souls try unsuccessfully to cling to each other. Carla Del Poggio stars as Angela Borghi, a young Italian woman who, while searching for her brother Carlo, winds up in gunfight crossfire, which leaves her alone on a train car with an injured black American soldier, Jerry Jackson (John Kitzmiller), whom she helps to get to a hospital to save his life. When the two meet up again later by chance, Angela has learned that her brother had been working for a black-market crime syndicate run by Pierre Luigi (Pierre Claudé). Rightly afraid that Angela could be swept up into Luigi’s prostitution ring, Jerry, who by now has strong feelings for Carla, decides to join Luigi instead. In fact, Luigi will make life miserable for both of them, and war-torn Italy will offer them no solace (unless an evening at an amusement park qualifies) and no pity. With a script written by Federico Fellini, Senza pietà was bold to feature a mixed-race romance in 1948, even if little physical affection was shown. As is standard for Italian cinema of the period, the star of melodrama shines brightly, pleas rising up in an abandoned church, dreams dashed off a cliff, swelling choral music denoting that the end is near.