Marriage Italian-Style is a 1964 film by Vittorio De Sica that tells the World War II era story of a cynical, successful businessman named Domenico , who, after meeting a naive country girl, Filomena , one night in a Neapolitan brothel, keeps frequenting her for years in an on-off relationship . He eventually takes her in his house as a semi-official mistress under the pretense that she take care of his ailing, senile mother. After having fallen for a younger, prettier girl and having planned to marry her, he finds himself cornered when Filomena feigns illness and "on her deathbed", asks to... be married to him. Thinking she'll be dead in a matter of hours and that the 'marriage' won't even be registered, he agrees. After having been proclaimed his legal bride, the shrewd and resourceful Filomena drops the charade and reveals to have put up the show for the one child she bore from him .
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