If you see this film you will agree with me that Rome of 50s was equal to any other developing country, with the same miseries, hunger and needs of any least developed nation in the world. Prostitution and unemployment were characteristics in Rome of those days. Accatone is a young lazy guy, living of what he can earn in a day but not working, i.e. stealing anything he finds and using illegally nice ladies as prostitutes. One day he decided to start working, but it was too hard for him, so he came back doing the same as in the past, stealing and smuggling anywhere. The film is spoken in Romanacio dialect, so I suspect that even for some Italians in the North this film has to be dubbed to the Italian (Toscana dialect) language, otherwise they would not understand it properly. It is also a possibility to see poor parts of the city and new built areas. The river Tevere was not as polluted as it is now because the Romans used to swim in it.
Review of Accattone
