Bello come un arcangelo (1974)

Deep in southern Italy in the 1970s, the handsome but penniless traveling salesman “Tano” Avallone falls for the beautiful Mariangela, the sixteen-year-old daughter of the widowed lawyer “Totonno” Fortis Pantaleo. To get close to her, he wins the lawyer’s favor by pretending to be his childhood friend and saying he is willing to eliminate the elderly Donna Mercedes, the lawyer’s mother, so that the lawyer can inherit her assets. As a guest of the family, Tano finds himself caught up in a whirlwind of female attention, including that of the earthy housekeeper Immacolata, whom the lawyer desires in vain, and the servant Sisina, whom the parish priest desires. The plot becomes more complicated because of the lawyer’s misgivings: one night, when the matriarch sees Tano naked, she mistakes him for the Archangel Gabriel and dies of a stroke. The local notable is driven mad with grief and admitted to a psychiatric hospital. Tano discovers that the girl has been using him and that he has no prospects with her, since she is engaged. Disappointed, he leaves the village, returning to his rootless life and taking Immacolata with him as a romantic consolation.