The White Sheik

The White Sheik
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Federico Fellini
Produced by	Luigi Rovere
Screenplay by	Federico Fellini Tullio Pinelli Ennio Flaiano
Story by	Michelangelo Antonioni Federico Fellini Tullio Pinelli
Starring	Alberto Sordi Leopoldo Trieste Brunella Bovo Giulietta Masina
Music by	Nino Rota
Cinematography	Arturo Gallea
Edited by	Rolando Benedetti
Release date	6 September 1952 (VFF) 20 September 1952 (Italy) 25 April 1956 (USA)
Running time	83 minutes
Country	Italy
Language	Italian

The White Sheik (Italian: Lo sceicco bianco) is a 1952 Italian romantic comedy film directed by Federico Fellini and starring Alberto Sordi, Leopoldo Trieste, Brunella Bovo and Giulietta Masina. Written by Fellini, Tullio Pinelli, Ennio Flaiano and Michelangelo Antonioni, the film is about a man who brings his new bride to Rome for their honeymoon, to gain an audience with the Pope, and to present his wife to his family. When the young woman sneaks away to find the hero of her romance novels, the man is forced to spend hour after painful hour making excuses to his eager family who want to meet his missing bride.The White Sheik was filmed on location in Fregene, Rome, Spoleto and Vatican City.

Two young newlyweds from a provincial town, Wanda (Brunella Bovo) and Ivan Cavalli (Leopoldo Trieste), arrive in Rome for their honeymoon. Wanda is obsessed with the "White Sheik" (Alberto Sordi), the Rudolph Valentino-like hero of a soap opera and sneaks off to find him, leaving her conventional, petit bourgeois husband in hysterics as he tries to hide his wife's disappearance from his strait-laced relatives who are waiting to go with them to visit the Pope. The plotline was re-used by Woody Allen in his film To Rome with Love.

The White Sheik was Fellini's first solo effort as a director. He had previously co-directed Variety Lights in 1950 with Alberto Lattuada.