Five Golden Hours 1961

Aldo Bondi is a professional pallbearer and mourner in Rome who thrives on the extravagant gifts he receives from the wealthy widows he comforts. His life takes a dramatic turn when he falls for the seemingly penniless Baroness Sandra, a woman who is in fact a rich “black widow” whose husbands have all died under suspicious circumstances. To secure a comfortable future, Bondi hatches a Ponzi-style scheme, coaxing three widows to part with their money by promising to invest it during the “five golden hours” — the brief window between Rome’s stock exchange closing and the New York Stock Exchange opening.

Yet the plan unravels when the Baroness absconds with the cash, leaving Bondi in hock to the widows. Desperation drives him to drastic measures: he attempts to kill the widows, but the scheme collapses and he pretends to have gone insane to escape their wrath. In the sanatarium, his roommate is another debtor feigning madness, Mr. Bing, a fellow con-warbler in the same precarious situation.

As the scheme falters, fate introduces a macabre twist: one of the three widows dies, leaving Bondi a fortune that he can only claim if he continues to play the role of an insane man; if he reveals sanity, the inheritance would go to a monastery. To secure a share, Bondi strikes a grim arrangement with the brothers to divide the money.

Back in Rome, Mr. Bing makes contact with the Baroness and, for a fee, passes along the message that Bondi is now rich. This news catalyzes a marriage between Bondi and Sandra, and before long he becomes her seventh dead husband, a chilling testament to the perilous web of deception he has woven around his own life.