The Gestapo forces con man Victorio Bardone to impersonate a dead partisan general in order to extract information from his fellow inmates.

Vittorio De Sica
as Bardone AKA 'Grimaldi'

Hannes Messemer
as S.S. Colonel Mueller

Vittorio Caprioli
as Aristide Banchelli

Nando Angelini
as Paolo

Herbert Fischer
as Sergeant Walter Hageman

Mary Greco
as Vera (the madam)

Bernardo Menicacci
as Prison guard

Lucia Modugno
as Partisan girl

Luciano Pigozzi
as Prisoner

Kurt Polter
as German officer