Aging small-time con man Augusto (Broderick Crawford), who swindles peasants, works with two younger men: Roberto (Franco Fabrizi), who wants to become the Italian Johnny Ray, and Bruno (Richard Basehart), nicknamed Picasso, who has a wife and daughter and wants to paint. Augusto avoids the personal entanglements, spending money at clubs seeking the good life. His attitude changes when he runs into his own daughter, whom he rarely sees, and realizes she's now a young woman and in need of his help to continue her studies. His usual partners are away, so he goes in with others to run a swindle, and they aren't forgiving when he claims he's given the money back to their mark. They leave him beaten, robbed, and alone.

There are four main themes in this Nino Rota’s soundtrack. A slow and sentimental composition introduced with three other themes at the beginning of the film; a typically upbeat circus tune; a powerful march with blaring horns and overbearing percussion and finally the last theme, similar in tempo to the first one, but not so melancholic. Unlike LA STRADA, where the medley of introductory themes functions much as an operatic overture does, these four tunes will have remarkably limited use in IL BIDONE.

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