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Directly after his successful The Gold of Naples (1954), Italian filmmaker Vittorio DeSica served up something of a throwback to his neorealist days. In The Roof (originally Il Tetto) a pair of young lovers wed in defiance of their families' wishes. With the confidence of youth, they decide to set up housekeeping for themselves. Alas, they soon learn that living on love is a virtually impossibility-especially in a postwar economy. The box-office failure of The Roof was a major setback for DeSica's directorial career: he would not be able to finance another film until 1960's Two Women.