My meeting with Magnani, for instance, was a remarkable collision; it was a trial of strength, the stronger would eat the other. I hope that you can see Il bandito, which I think she did extraordinarily well. Il bandito is the fruit of an encounter on the set which was rather like a circus, I would say: here was the tiger, and there the tamer (or vice versa). Whether the sheer strength and the homicidal intentions of one or the other prevailed, finally something happened. And to feel dominated gave her a certain satisfaction. Because when Magnani felt herself dominated, then she truly became an eruption of things which came from her very depths, and which are of a marvellous richness and power.

Alberto Lattuada, “L’amara rivolta dell’uomo solo,” Bianco e Nero, no. 6, June 1961

Alberto Lattuada, in his origins and preparation, belongs to the group of cinema intellectuals, but among these he is perhaps the only one who has truly understood what is cinema, and demonstrates it, not with articles, but with films. His last, Il bandito, is a happy meeting between the taste of the public and the artistic dignity of the director (….) It is too easy to say, as so many repeat, “The public wants crude stuff, like Il fornaretto di Venezia”; thus the lazy argue, and with them those who themselves could not succeed in doing better than Fornaretto di Venezia. Lattuada has worked for the public, but he has remained Lattuada, signing an excellent film, and I am ready to bet one of Rita Hayworth’s bras against a cigarette stub, that the public will judge Il bandito an outstanding success, showing that they also like fine things, as long as they don’t make them yawn.

Adriano Baracco, “Ha ragione Il bandito,” Hollywood (no. 44, 5 November 1946)