00:00Chains was popular with Italian audiences who enjoyed the entertainment and escapism
00:06that director Raffaello Matarazzo provided. The box office receipts were huge, but for whatever
00:12reason, Matarazzo's popularity didn't extend outside of Italy, and he remained largely forgotten
00:19in the US until recently, with our good friends over at Criterion helping with this, releasing
00:25his movies as part of their collection. At the time, Chains wasn't warmly received by film
00:31critics who, after years of viewing serious works of Italian neorealism, dismissed Matarazzo's
00:37movie. But in the end, the reviews didn't matter too much because following the success of Chains,
00:42he directed six more melodramas with his leading man and woman, Ameto Nazari and Yvonne Sanson,
00:49playing various characters. And next on TCM Imports, we'll see another, where Sanson is
00:54a woman who runs away to be with Nazari, her lover and a stand-up guy, but it all goes
00:59horribly wrong when he is accused of murder. Stay with us.
01:05Next on TCM, Tormento, then Honeymoon, and later Niagara Falls. TCM is a barrel of laughs today.
