The Philosopher's Stone

A comic fantasy about an elderly clerk who finds a stone which has the property of turning base metals into gold, this was something of a potboiler slipped into Ray's schedule because of delays on The Music Room. Losing out against the promptings of conscience, the downtrodden hero decides to use the stone to acquire the comforts he and his wife have never known, only to find his troubles merely beginning as he is swept into a wealthy social whirl. Shot in the neo-realist style, it has something of the same doggy charm as Rossellini's Miracle in Milan, though much more crudely made. If the political and social satire sometimes seems a little obvious, it is also evident that there are many allusions which tend to escape Western audiences.