Margheriti, Antonio

(1930-2002)

   Screenwriter and director. One of the masters of Italian (and international) low-budget B-grade films, Margheriti worked in, and across, all the major genres, producing more than 50 films in a career that spanned almost half a century.

   After working mostly as a screenwriter in the early 1950s, Margheriti made his directorial debut with Spacemen (also known as Assignment Outer Space, 1960), one of the first examples of Italian science fiction. Thereafter, usually under the pseudonym Anthony M. Dawson, Margheriti dabbled freely in all the genres, making more apocalyptic science fiction fantasies like Il pianeta degli uomini spenti (The Battle of the Worlds, 1961) and I Diafanoidi vengono da Marte (Diaphanoids, Bringers ofDeath, 1966), sword-and-sandal epics like Il crollo di Roma (The Collapse of Rome, 1962) and Ursus, il terrore di Kirghisi (Hercules, Prisoner of Evil, 1964), spaghetti Westerns such as Joko invoca Dio . . . e muori (Vengeance, 1968) and parodic spy thrillers in the James Bond mold: Operacidn Goldman (Lightning Bolt, 1966) and A007, sfida ai killers (Bob Flemming, Mission Casablanca, 1966). He achieved a strong international reputation, particularly in the horror genre, with films such as La vergine di Norimberga (Horror Castle, 1963), Danza macabra (Castle of Blood, 1964), Apocalypse domain (Cannibal Apocalypse, 1980), and the two films he codirected with Paul Morrissey, Flesh for Frankenstein (1973) and Blood for Dracula (1974). He also had a special propensity for creating hybrid genres such as the bizarre supernatural Western, Whisky & Fantasmi (Whiskey and Ghosts, 1976), where a young man on the run from Mexican bandits is protected by the ghosts of Davy Crockett, Pecos Bill, and Johnny Appleseed.

   Appropriately, his last film, Virtual Weapon (1996), filmed entirely in Miami, Florida, and made under his usual pseudonym, is a blend of police thriller, buddy movie, and dystopic science fiction.

   Historical Dictionary of Italian Cinema by Alberto Mira