Antonio Margheriti

Antonio Margheriti (19 September 1930 – 4 November 2002), also known under the pseudonyms Anthony M. Dawson and Antony DaisiesTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn ("daisies" is "margherite" in Italian), was an Italian filmmaker. Margheriti worked in many different genres in the Italian film industry, and was known for his sometimes derivative but often stylish and entertaining science fiction, sword and sandal, horror/giallo, Eurospy, Spaghetti Western, Vietnam War and action movies that were released to a wide international audience. He died in 2002.Template:Sfn

Early life and career

Antonio Margheriti was born in Rome on 19 September 1930.Template:Sfn Margheriti was the son of a railroad engineer and began his film career in 1950 working with Mario Serandrei.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn He then began making short documentaries beginning with Vecchia Roma in 1953.Template:Sfn In 1954, Margheriti was credited with special effects in films such as Pino Mercanti's I cinque dell'Adamello and La notte che la terra tremo.Template:Sfn By 1955 he was credited in screenplays such as Classe di ferro.Template:Sfn

Directing

Margheriti grew up reading science fiction comics, and when he was offered the film Assignment: Outer Space, he signed on as director.Template:Sfn He followed up this film with Battle of the Worlds starring actor Claude Rains,Template:Sfn which was in turn followed by The Golden Arrow with Tab Hunter and some more peplum-style films such as The Fall of Rome and Giants of Rome.Template:Sfn Other genres tackled in the 1960s included horror—Castle of Blood, The Long Hair of Death and The Virgin of Nuremberg and the Eurospy films: Bob Fleming... Mission Casablanca and Operazione Goldman.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Margheriti then returned to science fiction with his Gamma I series, originally filmed for the Italian television series Fantascienza but afterwards released theatrically.Template:Sfn Margheriti followed these films with some westerns, including Take a Hard Ride and And God Said to Cain.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

In the 1980s, Margheriti created films following the success of PlatoonTemplate:Sfn and Raiders of the Lost Ark, such as The Last Hunter and Hunters of the Golden Cobra, which both starred David Warbeck.Template:Sfn Warbeck also starred in Tiger Joe, a film overshadowed by tragedy when Margheriti's long time cinematographer, Riccardo Pallottini, died in a plane crash while attempting to get the film's last shot.Template:Sfn

He delved into the genre of films inspired by The Wild Geese with Code Name: Wild Geese and Commando Leopard starring Lewis Collins as well as Conan the Barbarian (1982) with Yor, the Hunter from the Future, which was shot in Turkey and was picked up by Columbia Pictures for an American release to 1400 theaters.Template:Sfn

Margheriti died on 4 November 2002.Template:Sfn

Style

Margheriti's specialty in films was low budget efforts that fell into genres such as action and science fiction.Template:Sfn To make films in short amounts of time, Margheriti applied techniques such as shooting with several cameras simultaneously, allowing him to record master shots, close-ups, and more.Template:Sfn This often led him to light films very carefully, and allowed him to create several films per year.Template:Sfn

Partial filmography

Note: The films listed as N/A are not necessarily chronological.

Title	Year	Credited as				Notes	Ref(s)
		Director	Screenwriter	Screen story writer	Other
Assignment: Outer Space	1960	Yes	Yes				Template:Sfn
Battle of the Worlds	1961	Yes
	1962	Yes					Template:Sfn
	1963	Yes	Yes				Template:Sfn
		Yes	Yes				Template:Sfn
Castle of Blood	1964	Yes					Template:Sfn
Devil of the Desert Against the Son of Hercules		Yes					Template:Sfn
Hercules, Prisoner of Evil		Yes					Template:Sfn
Giants of Rome		Yes					Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
		Yes	Yes				Template:Sfn
Wild, Wild Planet	1966	Yes
Lightning Bolt		Yes
	1968	Yes	Yes
	1969	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Producer	Template:Sfn
	1970	Yes	Yes
	1971	Yes	Yes				Template:Sfn
Treasure Island	1972		Yes
	1973	Yes	Yes				Template:Sfn
Rudeness	1975		Yes	Yes			Template:Sfn
Death Rage	1976	Yes					Template:Sfn
Yor, the Hunter from the Future	1983	Yes	Yes				Template:Sfn
Code Name: Wild Geese	1984	Yes	Yes
Jungle Raiders	1985	Yes					Template:Sfn
Presentimento	—	Yes	Yes
Classe di ferro	—		Yes	Yes
Gambe d'oro	—	Yes	Yes
Promesse di marinaio	—		Yes	Yes
Roulotte e roulette	—		Yes	Yes
Solitudine	—		Yes
	—	Yes
War of the Planets	—	Yes
Bob Fleming... Mission Casablanca	—	Yes
Joe l'implacabile	—	Yes
Io ti amo	—	Yes	Yes	Yes
Vengeance	—	Yes	Yes
Mr. Superinvisible	—	Yes
House of 1000 Pleasures	—	Yes	Yes
Novelle galeotte d'amore dal Decamerone	—	Yes	Yes	Yes
Mr. Hercules Against Karate	—	Yes	Yes
	—	Yes	Yes
Manone il ladrone	—	Yes	Yes	Yes
Fantasma en el Oeste	—	Yes	Yes	Yes
Cannibal Apocalypse	—	Yes
	—	Yes
Car Crash	—	Yes
Hunters of the Golden Cobra	—	Yes
Tiger Joe	—	Yes
Tornado: The Last Blood	—	Yes
	—	Yes
Commando Leopard	—	Yes
	—	Yes
Template:Ill	—	Yes
Indio	—	Yes
Indio 2 - La rivolta	—	Yes

Legacy

In the documentary on the Image DVD release of his film Cannibal Apocalypse, Margheriti proudly mentioned that it was Quentin Tarantino's favorite among his films. In Tarantino's film Inglourious Basterds, Eli Roth's character Donny Donowitz uses "Antonio Margheriti" as an alias in an undercover operation at the cinema screening of Stolz der Nation.Template:Better source needed There is also a reference in Tarantino's film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. In said film, Leonardo DiCaprio portrays the fictional actor Rick Dalton, who goes to Italy in 1969 to film Spaghetti Westerns, including one spy thriller directed by Margheriti titled Operazione Dyn-o-mite.

External links

• Stefano Bigliardi, "Mr. Superinvisible's Potion: Science, Scientists and Technology in Antonio Margheriti's Films," Simulteanea. A Journal of Italian Media and Pop Culture - Rivista di media e cultura popolare in Italia, Vol. 2, N. 1.
• Article at Senses of Cinema
• Template:Trim/ Template:PAGENAMEBASE at IMDbTemplate:EditAtWikidata
• Thesis on Margheriti