Rome: Free City

The account is set in Rome after the war. The year is 1946. A burglar is at work one night. While he is at it he saves a man’s life. The man has just come back from the war. On his return he learned that his fiancée had left him. He tries to kill himself. From that moment the thief takes him along. The two of them go out into the street. Trouble finds them through the night. On the way they meet a typist who cannot pay her rent. There is also a man who has lost his memory. He asks everyone whether they recognise him. Valentina Cortese and Andrea Checchi take the leads, with Vittorio De Sica also in the cast, in Marcello Pagliero’s Italian film of 1946.