Painting a noir story in the style of Italian neorealism, Ai margini della metropoli (US: At the Edge of the City) portrays postwar Italy as a land of poverty and injustice where crime is always just around the corner. Co-directors Lizzani and Mida fix their naturalistic lens on two members of society with contrasting fortunes: successful attorney Roberto Martini (Massimo Girotti) is engaged to a society girl while his young, desperate client, Mario Ilari (Michel Rouchard), is accused of murdering his pregnant girlfriend in the Roman slums. The bridge between these two characters is Martini’s typist Luisa (Marina Berti), an educated, self-disciplined woman who comes from Mario’s low-class world and makes herself essential to the project of proving his innocence. Giulietta Masina plays Gina, Mario’s future wife and the mother of his newborn baby, whose trust in — and dedication to — her beloved never wavers. Finding B&W beauty in the ugly terrain of industrial plants, abandoned mills, shantytowns, and homeless camps, the film focuses on one man’s legal fate but seems to incriminate an entire country.