In the 1920s, Titanus pioneered what came to be called the “Neapolitan” genre: contemporary melodramas about social conditions in Southern Italy that typically focus on a pair of young lovers separated by prejudice, poverty or hypocrisy. These films stood in marked contrast to the more static epics and costume dramas otherwise in vogue in Italian cinema and helped make Titanus an important studio. After the war, with production severely curtailed during national reconstruction, the studio revived its fortunes with a return to the Neapolitan film with Chains, in which a young working-class couple’s bond is tested by the reappearance of the wife’s former lover. With its blend of neorealism and full-blooded melodrama, the film was successful enough to create demand for a follow-up; studio, director and stars would collaborate six more times over the next decade.