Set in Italy’s postwar urban landscape of poverty, police, and prostitutes, Damiano Damiani’s debut feature, Il Rossetto (US: Lipstick), stars the suave Pierre Brice as Gino Luciani, a handsome social climber attempting to avoid a murder rap after 12-year-old neighbor Silvana (Laura Vivaldi) sees him exiting the apartment of a recently murdered hooker. Aware Silvana has a serious crush on him, Gino flatters and flirts with the girl (note the extraordinary movie “date” scene) to keep her from telling the police, who soon interrogate her, and refrains from telling her that he’s engaged to the wealthy socialite Lorella Severano (Georgia Moll) who is so desperately in love with Gino (“It’s partly because you’re poor that I love you”) that she begs him to smack her and he does — immediately and forcefully. As lead murder investigator, Commissioner Fioresi (Pietro Germi) zeroes in on Gino after his relationship with Silvana is exposed (the shocking revelation that a 12-year-old wore lipstick requires a medical exam to confirm her virginity). Damiani shows himself to be a skillful craftsman not only in delivering on the technical aspects (the score’s angelic refrain, frequent high angles to convey omniscience) but in drawing complex, flawed characters whose guilt and menace remain up in the air until the final moments (note the mesmerizing, suspenseful scene in the country when Gino nearly bludgeons the girl.)