Exploitation directors
Exploitation film is a type of cinema, often cheaply produced, that is designed to create a fast profit by referring to, or exploiting, contemporary cultural anxieties.
Exploitation films often include themes such as suggestive or explicit sex, sensational violence, drug use, nudity, gore, destruction, rebellion, mayhem, and the bizarre.
-Sub-genres are: Sex-ploitation, Blax-ploitation, cannibal film, canuxploitation, carsploitation, Giallo films, nazisploitation, nudist films, rape and revenge films, redsploitation and many more….
-Grindhouse" is a term that refers to theaters that primarily showed exploitation films. There were a handful of these theaters on 42nd Street in New York City. These theaters showed a variety of films that generally featured sex, violence, and bizarre subject matter. These included slasher films, X-rated movies, badly-dubbed Hong Kong chop socky pictures, blaxploitation, and general exploitation films. The period most generally associated with these types of movie houses stretches from the late 1960s to the mid-1980s. Since the demise of these theaters, and with them certain types of film, an enthusiasm and appreciation for them has developed. Hollywood films such as Black Dynamite, Machete, and Hobo with a Shotgun have since payed homage to them.
Exploitation films often include themes such as suggestive or explicit sex, sensational violence, drug use, nudity, gore, destruction, rebellion, mayhem, and the bizarre.
-Sub-genres are: Sex-ploitation, Blax-ploitation, cannibal film, canuxploitation, carsploitation, Giallo films, nazisploitation, nudist films, rape and revenge films, redsploitation and many more….
-Grindhouse" is a term that refers to theaters that primarily showed exploitation films. There were a handful of these theaters on 42nd Street in New York City. These theaters showed a variety of films that generally featured sex, violence, and bizarre subject matter. These included slasher films, X-rated movies, badly-dubbed Hong Kong chop socky pictures, blaxploitation, and general exploitation films. The period most generally associated with these types of movie houses stretches from the late 1960s to the mid-1980s. Since the demise of these theaters, and with them certain types of film, an enthusiasm and appreciation for them has developed. Hollywood films such as Black Dynamite, Machete, and Hobo with a Shotgun have since payed homage to them.
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Joseph W. Sarno is one of the pioneering directors of the sex-exploitation or "sexploitation" film genre. Known for a distinctly economic style and an abiding interest in tense, psycho-sexual character development, Sarno has also come to be recognized as one of the true geniuses to emerge from the sexploitation form.
He continued to direct under various pseudonyms in the hardcore-sex feature genre of the 1970s and 1980s, but is best remembered for such pre-pornographic classics as Sin in the Suburbs (1964), Moonlighting Wives (1966), The Bed and How to Make It! (1966) and Inga (1968). Along with Russ Meyer and Radley Metzger, Sarno is one of the few sex-exploitation auteurs to receive critical attention. In recent years his work has been the subject of retrospectives at the New York Underground Film Festival, the Torino Film Festival in Turin, Italy, and the Cinémathèque française in Paris.- Director
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One of the pioneers of American adult cinema, Radley Metzger was born in New York. He first made a name in erotic cinema by importing and distributing European erotic films, including the Danish sex film I, a Woman (1965). At around the same time Metzger decided to direct his own features, which quickly became renowned for their strong sense of composition, high-tone locations and edgy, erotic subject matter. Among his best-known softcore features are Therese and Isabelle (1968), Carmen, Baby (1967) and Camille 2000 (1969), all of which were shot in Europe. Other notable Metzger films of the period include The Lickerish Quartet (1970), Woman of the Year (1973) and Score (1973). Once hardcore porn came to dominate the US adult film market after Deep Throat (1972), Metzger directed several highly-regard explicit features using the pseudonym "Henry Paris," including The Private Afternoons of Pamela Mann (1974), Naked Came the Stranger (1975), The Opening of Misty Beethoven (1976) and Barbara Broadcast (1977).- Director
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Russell Albion Meyer was born in San Leandro, California, to Lydia Lucinda (Hauck), a nurse, and William Arthur Meyer, a police officer, who divorced during his childhood. His parents were both of German descent. Meyer began winning prizes at 15 with his amateur films. He spent World War II in Europe as a combat cameraman. After the war, he became a professional photographer, shooting some of the earliest Playboy centerfolds. He made his film directorial debut with Mr. Tease and His Playthings (1959), the first nudie (softcore sex) film to make a profit over a million dollars, which led to a string of self-financed films that gradually became more bizarre, violent, and cartoonish. In the mid-1960s, he established his style with his Gothic period, a quartet of black-and-white films: Russ Meyer's Lorna (1964), Mudhoney (1965), Motorpsycho! (1965), and Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965) that many consider to be his best work. After the blockbusting Vixen! (1968), he was hired by 20th-Century Fox to make studio pictures. The first of these, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970), was an enormous hit, but after the lukewarm reception of the uncharacteristically serious The Seven Minutes (1971), Meyer returned to the sex-and-violence films that made his name, culminating in the delirious Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens (1979). He spent the 1980s working on various autobiographies, both in film (Breast of Russ Meyer) and print ("A Clean Breast").- Producer
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Roger William Corman was born April 5, 1926, in Detroit, Michigan. Initially following in his father's footsteps, Corman studied engineering at Stanford University, but, while in school, he began to lose interest in the profession and developed a growing passion for film. Upon graduation, he worked a total of three days as an engineer at US Electrical Motors, which cemented his growing realization that engineering wasn't for him. He quit and took a job as a messenger for 20th Century Fox, eventually rising to the position of story analyst.
After a term spent studying modern English literature at England's Oxford University and a year spent bopping around Europe, Corman returned to the US, intent on becoming a screenwriter/producer. He sold his first script in 1953, "The House in the Sea," which was eventually filmed and released as Highway Dragnet (1954).
Horrified by the disconnect between his vision for the project and the film that eventually emerged, Corman took his salary from the picture, scraped together a little capital and set himself up as a producer, turning out Monster from the Ocean Floor (1954). Corman used his next picture, The Fast and the Furious (1954), to finagle a multi-picture deal with a fledgling company called American Releasing Corp. (ARC). It would soon change its name to American-International Pictures (AIP) and with Corman as its major talent behind the camera, would become one of the most successful independent studios in cinema history.
With no formal training, Corman first took to the director's chair with Five Guns West (1955) and over the next 15 years directed 53 films, mostly for AIP. He proved himself a master of quick, inexpensive productions, turning out several movies as director and/or producer in each of those years--nine movies in 1957, and nine again in 1958. His personal speed record was set with The Little Shop of Horrors (1960), which he shot in two days and a night.
In the early 1960s, he began to take on more ambitious projects, gaining a great deal of critical praise (and commercial success) from a series of adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe stories, most of them starring Vincent Price. His film The Intruder (1962) was a serious look at racial integration in the South, starring a very young William Shatner. Critically praised and winning a prize at the Venice Film Festival, the movie became Corman's first--and, for many years, only--commercial flop. He called its failure "the greatest disappointment in my career." As a consequence of the experience, Corman opted to avoid such direct "message" films in the future and resolved to express his social and political concerns beneath the surface of overt entertainments.
Those messages became more radical as the 1960s wound to a close and after AIP began re-editing his films without his knowledge or consent, he left the company, retiring from directing to concentrate on production and distribution through his own newly formed company, New World Pictures. In addition to low-budget exploitation flicks, New World also distributed distinguished art cinema from around the world, becoming the American distributor for the films of Ingmar Bergman, Akira Kurosawa, Federico Fellini, François Truffaut and others. Selling off New World in the 1980s, Corman has continued his work through various companies in the years since--Concorde Pictures, New Horizons, Millenium Pictures, New Concorde. In 1990, after the publication of his biography "How I Made A Hundred Movies in Hollywood And Never Lost A Dime"--one of the all-time great books on filmmaking--he returned to directing but only for a single film, Frankenstein Unbound (1990)
With hundreds of movies to his credit, Roger Corman is one of the most prolific producers in the history of the film medium and one of the most successful--in his nearly six decades in the business, only about a dozen of his films have failed to turn a profit. Corman has been dubbed, among other things, "The King of the Cult Film" and "The Pope of Pop Cinema" and his filmography is packed with hundreds of remarkably entertaining films in addition to dozens of genuine cult classics. Corman has displayed an unrivaled eye for talent over the years--it could almost be said that it would be easier to name the top directors, actors, writers and creators in Hollywood who DIDN'T get their start with him than those who did. Among those he mentored are Francis Ford Coppola, Ron Howard, Martin Scorsese, Jack Nicholson, James Cameron, Robert De Niro, Peter Bogdanovich, Joe Dante and Sandra Bullock. His influence on modern American cinema is almost incalculable. In 2009, he was honored with an Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement.- Writer
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Jack Hill, sometimes referred to as a legendary cult-film director, grew up around movies--his father was a set designer for Warner Brothers since 1925, and later for Walt Disney Studios, where he eventually designed the Disneyland Castle. Jack went to the University of California to study film, where he was a classmate of Francis Ford Coppola--they worked together on student productions and later both apprenticed with Roger Corman, working on The Terror, among other films. While Coppola went on to Oscardom, Jack continued with low-budget exploitation films, several of which were highly profitable, especially The Big Doll House, which initiated the short-lived women-in-prison genre. His so-called "blaxploitaton" films Coffy and Foxy Brown were major hits. Nowadays his films are hailed as cult classics, thanks primarily to Quentin Tarantino, who saw Jack Hill's work as it made its way to video, with almost all of his films now available for viewing on various streaming channels as well as DVD releases.- Director
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Gerardo de Leon was born on 12 September 1913 in Manila, Philippines. He was a director and actor, known for Noli me tángere (1961), Huwag Mo Akong Limutin (1960) and El filibusterismo (1962). He died on 25 July 1981 in Manila, Philippines.- Director
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Eddie Romero, who initially used the screen name 'Enrique Moreno' early in his directing career, was born July 7 1924 in Dumaguete City. He is the son of Pilar Cinco, a school teacher, and José E. Romero, a former congressman, Secretary of Education, and Philippine Ambassador to London. He was married to Carolina Gonzales, with whom he had three children, including film director Joey Romero; actress Chanda Romero is also a niece. He studied at Dumaguete Elementary School, Ateneo de Manila, University of the Philippines (UP) High School, and Siliman University High School in Dumaguete City. He earned his bachelor's degree in UP, completed the associate in arts (pre-law) program at Siliman University, and was conferred the honorary degree, Doctor of Humane Letters, by the Foundation University in Dumaguete City. A leader in the industry, Romero has served as deputy director of the Film Academy of the Philippines (FAP), and Chair of the Sub-Committee on the Arts of the National Commission on Culture and the Arts (NCCA). Romero's major influences were Gerardo de Leon and Yasujirô Ozu, a Japanese director. He observed production trends, film techniques and the work of noted directors in the United States and Europe. He was first involved in film when he wrote the script of Gerardo de Leon Ang maestra (1941), which starred Rogelio de la Rosa, Rosa Del Rosario and Sylvia La Torre. He joined Sampaguita Pictures, as scriptwriter of de Leon's Isumpa mo giliw (1947), then directed exclusively for Sampaguita Pictures from 1947 to 1953. Among his early films are: Ang kamay ng Diyos (1947); Hindi kita malimot (1948); Selosa (1948); Apoy sa langit (1949); Abogada (1949); 'Ang Asawa Kong Amerikana' (1953), with Oscar Moreno, Joan Page, Chichay, Boy Alano, Eddie Garcia and Bella Flores - this was the first Filipino movie to win an important award in an Asian Film Festival. During this period, Romero was also known as the director of the Pancho Magalona-Tita Duran movies: Always kay ganda mo (1949); 'Sa Piling Mo' (1949); Kasintahan sa pangarap (1951); Ang ating pag-ibig (1953). Romero became a producer-director with the film Buhay alamang (1952), which he adapted from a stage play by Gerardo de Leon. Under Hemisphere Productions, he produced films for international release which he himself wrote and/or directed, foremost of which was 'Day of the Trumpet' (1957), which starred Hollywood actors John Agar, Richard Arlen, Myron Healey and Jennings Sturgeon, alongside Filipino actors Pancho Magalona, Alicia Vergel, Cielito Legaspi, Vic Diaz and Max Alvarado. (This movie was released in the US as The Day of the Trumpet (1958).) Other English-language films Romero made were The Kidnappers (1958) (originally titled 'Man on the Run'), with Hollywood stars Burgess Meredith', William Phipps, Paul Harber, Theodore Bikel, costarring Filipino actors Olivia Cenizal, Carol Varga, Amado Cortez, Zaldy Zshornack, Johnny Monteiro; Terror Is a Man (1959), topbilled by Francis Lederer, with Greta Thyssen, Richard Derr and Filipino actors Oscar Keesee, Peyton Keesee, Lilia Duran, and Flory Carlos; Espionage: Far East (1961) with Tod Andrews, Mila Del Sol, Leopoldo Salcedo, Diane Jergens, Manuel Conde, Shirley Gorospe and Joan Tabor; Escape to Paradise (1960), starring Bruce Baxter, Joe Dennis, Diane Jergens, Jennings Sturgeon with Filipino actors Rosie Acosta, Arsenio Alonzo, Johnny Monteiro, Renato Robles, Leopoldo Salcedo, Joe Sison; The Passionate Strangers (1966), with Michael Parsons, Valora Noland, Claude Wilson, and Filipinos Mario Montenegro, Celia Rodriguez, Vic Diaz, Butz Aquino and Cesar Aguilar; The Raiders of Leyte Gulf (1962), with Leopoldo Salcedo, Michael Parsons, Efren Reyes, Liza Moreno, Eddie Mesa, Oscar Keesee and Jennings Sturgeon; Manila, Open City (1968), with Charito Solis, Ric Rodrigo, Mario Montenegro, James Shigeta, Eddie Garcia, Vic Diaz, Lauro Delgado, Alex Nicol, John Ashley, Nova Villa, Rosa Mia and Norma Blancaflor. Starting with Mad Doctor of Blood Island (1968), with John Ashley, Angelique Pettyjohn, Ronald Remy, Alicia Alonzo, Tita Muñoz, Alfonso Carvajal and Johnny Long, a film closely resembling Island of Lost Souls (1932), Romero began a collaboration with Hollywood-based actors like John Ashley. This was followed by several other exotically-themed films, usually with Eddie Garcia, like Beast of the Yellow Night (1971), costarring John Ashley again and Leopoldo Salcedo, Mary Charlotte Wilcox, Vic Diaz and Ken Metcalfe; Beast of Blood (1970) costarring 'John Ashley (I) and Celeste Yarnall; The Twilight People (1972), costarring Ashley again, Charles Macaulay, Pat Woodell, Pam Grier and Letty Mirasol; Black Mama White Mama (1973), topbilled by Pam Grier, Margaret Markov, Lynn Borden, with Zaldy Zshornack and Alona Alegre; The Woman Hunt (1972) with John Ashley, Pat Woodell, Charlene Jones (I)', Lisa Todd, Laurie Rose and Lotis Key; Savage Sisters (1974) with Gloria Hendry, Cheri Caffaro, Rosanna Ortiz, John Ashley (I)', Sid Haig, and Rita Gomez; Sudden Death (1977), with Hollywood stars Robert Conrad and Don Stroud, costarring Felton Perry, Angie Ferro and Ken Metcalfe'. In the mid-1970s Romero returned to the local scene with the now-famous This Is How We Were Before, How Are You Doing Now? (1976); Sinong kapiling? Sinong kasiping? (1977); Banta ng kahapon (1977); Durugin si Totoy Bato (1979); Aguila (1980); Kamakalawa (1981); Ang padrino (1984); and Hari sa hari, lahi sa lahi (1987). In 1992 he scripted and directed the 13-episode TV version of Jose Rizal's Noli me tángere (1961) for the Cultural Center of the Philippines. He has made over 20 films for international distribution and over 35 Filipino movies for local distribution. Romero's last directorial foray was Faces of Love (2007), starring Christopher De Leon, Angel Aquino, Alfred Vargas, Juliana Palermo, Bembol Roco, Chanda Romero, Ricky Davao, Mon Confiado and Rodel Velayo.
Romero has received a total of 22 awards; these include five Best Screenplay awards from the Filipino Academy of Movie Arts & Sciences (FAMAS), for Buhay alamang (1952), The Passionate Strangers (1966), Durugin si Totoy Bato (1979), Aguila (1980) and Ang padrino (1984), elevating him to the Hall of Fame. He was chosen FAMAS Best Director for The Passionate Strangers (1966) and Aguila (1980). FAMAS eventually awarded him to the FAMAS Hall of Fame in 1986, the FAMAS Lifetime Achievement Award in 1993, and the Presidential Award in 2000. In 1951 he won the Maria Clara Award for Best Director for Ang prinsesa at ang Pulubi (1950); the following year, yet another Best Director Award for Diego Silang (1951). Romero is a recipient of the Dr Ciriaco Santiago Memorial Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Movie Industry for 'Day of the Trumpet' (1957), the first coproduction with a foreign film company; this film was released in the US as The Day of the Trumpet (1958). At the Gawad Urian Awards, he won Best Direction and Best Screenplay for This Is How We Were Before, How Are You Doing Now? (1976), as well as the Dekada Award (Best Film of the Decade) for the said film, given in 1981; he garnered Urian nominations for Best Screenplay for Sinong kapiling? Sinong kasiping? (1977) and Best Screenplay and Best Direction for Banta ng kahapon (1977), and again for Best Screenplay and Best Direction for Aguila (1980). Gawad Urian gave him a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995. He won the Festival Prize (Best Direction and Best Screenplay) for This Is How We Were Before, How Are You Doing Now? (1976), at the Metro Manila Film Festival. He received a Papal Award as Film Director of the Decade, 1971-1980, at the Catholic Mass Media Awards (CMMA). At the FAP Awards, he won nominations for Best Screenplay and Best Direction for Faces of Love (2007). He was also presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Cinemanil International Film Festival in 2000. Romero passed away on May 28, 2013- causes cited were blood clot and prostate cancer. (He would have
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Writer/director/producer Arthur Marks was born on August 2, 1927 in Los Angeles, California. His grandparents acted in silent pictures and his father, Dave Marks, was an assistant director and production manager at MGM whose credits include The Wizard of Oz (1939) and Easter Parade (1948).
Arthur began his film career as a young boy working as both an extra and bit actor in movies in the 1930s. He attended the University of Southern California and got a job working in the production department at MGM. However, it was in the 1950s that his career really took off: He was an assistant director for the TV shows Broken Arrow (1956), The 20th Century-Fox Hour (1955) and Treasury Men in Action (1950) and worked on the immensely popular Perry Mason (1957) TV series as both a producer and director. He eventually began directing enjoyably trashy low-budget drive-in exploitation features in the 1970s; he made his theatrical film debut with the 1970 movie Togetherness (1970). He truly hit his stride, though, with several hugely entertaining blaxploitation outings: The rousing crime thriller Detroit 9000 (1973) (this particular picture was re-released in theaters in 1998 by Quentin Tarantino), the delightfully breezy Pam Grier vehicle Friday Foster (1975), the bang-up Fred Williamson action flick Bucktown (1975), the atmospheric horror winner J.D.'s Revenge (1976), and the amusingly goofy comedy The Monkey Hu$tle (1976). His other films as director include the gritty film noir Bonnie's Kids (1972), the sleazy serial killer opus The Roommates (1973), and the silly soft-core romp Class of '74 (1972). In addition, he served as production manager on The Centerfold Girls (1974) and Wonder Women (1973). He often produced the films he directed.
Marks ran the independent outfit General Film Corp. in the 1970s, which picked up pictures like William Girdler's The Get-Man (1974) and the notorious cult exploitation gem The Candy Snatchers (1973) for theatrical distribution. Outside of his movie work, he has directed episodes of such TV shows as The Dukes of Hazzard (1979), Starsky and Hutch (1975) and I Spy (1965)
He and his wife Phyllis Marie Lehman had four children; his sons Beau Marks and Paul Marks are both successful film and television producers. Marks died at age 92 at his home in Woodland Hills, California on November 13, 2019.- Director
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Lee Frost rates highly as one of the best, most talented and versatile filmmakers in the annals of exploitation cinema. Frost was born on August 14, 1935, in Globe, Arizona. He grew up in Glendale, California, and Oahu, Hawaii. He eventually wound up in Hollywood, where he started his career making TV commercials for the studio Telepics. Frost made his film debut with the early 1960s nudie cutie Surftide 77 (1962). He went on to make a slew of films in many different genres: tongue-in-cheek horror comedy (House on Bare Mountain (1962)), mondo shock documentaries (Hollywood's World of Flesh (1963), Mondo Bizarro (1966), Mondo Freudo (1966)), perverse softcore roughies (The Defilers (1965), The Animal (1968)), crime drama (The Pick-Up (1968)), westerns (Hot Spur (1968), The Scavengers (1969)) and even Nazisploitation (Love Camp 7 (1969), which has been widely cited as the prototype for the notorious Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS (1975)). A majority of Frost's 1960s features were made for legendary trash flick producer Bob Cresse. Moreover, Lee added sex inserts into such foreign films as London in the Raw (1964), Night Women (1964) and Witchcraft '70 (1969). Frost continued cranking out entertainingly sleazy drive-in items throughout the 1970s; they include the startling psycho sniper outing Zero in and Scream (1971), the passable biker opus Chrome and Hot Leather (1971), the gritty Chain Gang Women (1971), the hilariously campy The Thing with Two Heads (1972), the immensely enjoyable Policewomen (1974), the gnarly blaxploitation winner The Black Gestapo (1975), the rowdy redneck romp Dixie Dynamite (1976) and the jolting roughie porno shocker A Climax of Blue Power (1974). Frost often cast former football player Phil Hoover in his 1970s movies and frequently collaborated with producer/screenwriter Wes Bishop (in addition to their own pictures, Frost and Bishop wrote the script for Jack Starrett's terrific Race with the Devil (1975), which Frost was originally supposed to direct as well). Both Frost and Bishop often appear as actors, usually in small parts, in Frost's films. Lee worked as an editor on industrial movies for a film laboratory throughout the 1980s and early 1990s. His last feature was the straight-to-video Shannon Whirry erotic thriller Private Obsession (1995).
Lee Frost died at age 71 on May 25, 2007.- Director
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Stephen C. Apostolof (25 February 1928 in Burgas, Bulgaria - 14 August 2005, Mesa, Arizona), sometimes credited under aliases A.C. Stephen(s) or Robert Lee, was a Bulgarian-American filmmaker specializing in the "erotic" film genre.
Born in the Bulgarian Black Sea town of Burgas, he claimed asylum in the US in the 1940s. His large body of work was produced mainly between the late 1960s and the late 1970s. In 1957 he produced Journey to Freedom (1957), an anti-Communist picture inspired by his own life. The film teamed Apostolof with director of photography William C. Thompson and Swedish-born actor 'Tor Johnson', both now best-known for their work with the infamous director Edward D. Wood Jr.. Thompson later introduced Apostolof to Wood. In an interview conducted in the beginning of the 1990s, Apostolof recalls his first meeting with the eccentric director, who appeared at the "Brown Derby" restaurant in Los Angeles, in drag and with a mustache.
Apostolof made his directorial debut with Orgy of the Dead (1965). Ed Wood wrote the script and acted as production assistant. The film starred Criswell, the famous television oracle immortalized in Wood's Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957). Outtakes from this film and interview segments with Apostolof are included in the 1994 documentary Ed Wood: Look Back in Angora (1994), released by Rhino Home Video. During the 1960s and 1970s Apostolof directed nine screenplays written by Wood.
Apostolof was interviewed for an in-depth article on the making of "Orgy of the Dead" in the horror/science fiction magazine Femme Fatales (7:1, June 1998). In 1990 the specialized magazine Psychotronic Video published an eight-page interview with Apostolof entitled "Stephen C. Apostoloff: Bulgarian nude director".
Stephen Apostolof died on August 14, 2005, aged 77. He is survived by his second wife and five children.- Director
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Stephen Gibson is known for Black Lolita (1974) and Hackin' Jack vs. the Chainsaw Chick 3D (2014).- Actor
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Don Edmonds was born on September 1, 1937, in Kansas City, MO. He came to Hollywood in the mid to late 1950s. He studied acting with noted acting coach Estelle Harmon and began performing in various California stage productions. His initial forays into television acting included such live TV shows as Playhouse 90 (1956), Studio One (1948) and The Loretta Young Show (1953). He was usually cast as a goofy sidekick in such "beach party"-type movies as Gidget Goes Hawaiian (1961), Beach Ball (1965) and Wild Wild Winter (1966). He made guest appearances on such TV shows as Hunter (1984), Green Acres (1965), Combat! (1962), Petticoat Junction (1963), The Munsters (1964), Gidget (1965) and Father Knows Best (1954).
Edmonds made his directorial debut with the soft-core features Wild Honey (1972) and Tender Loving Care (1973). He achieved his greatest enduring cult exploitation cinema popularity by directing the infamous Nazisploitation classic Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS (1975) and its marvelously outrageous sequel Ilsa, Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks (1976). After "Ilsa" Edmonds went on to direct the superbly gritty urban action winner Bare Knuckles (1977), the cruddy slasher horror entry Terror on Tour (1980), the action comedy Tomcat Angels (1991) and the pilot of the TV series Silk Stalkings (1991). As the vice president of production at Producers Sales Organization, Don was responsible for getting movies like Short Circuit (1986), 8 Million Ways to Die (1986) and The Clan of the Cave Bear (1986) greenlit and subsequently made. He had also been involved as either a producer, co-producer or executive producer on a sizable number of pictures, including Larceny (2004), Fast Money (1996), True Romance (1993) (he was part of the production team which helped Quentin Tarantino get his early professional filmmaking career off and running), Skeeter (1993) and The Night Stalker (1986). In later years, Don attended screenings of his 1970s drive-in flicks and appeared as a guest at film conventions held all over the country.
He died at age 71 of liver cancer on May 30, 2009.- Actor
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Giovanni Brass was born on 26 March 1933 into the family of a famous artist, Italico Brass, who was his grandfather. Italico gave his grandson a nickname "Tintoretto," which Giovanni later adapted into his cinematic name, Tinto Brass.
Tinto inherited his grandfather's artistic skills, but he applied them to film instead of canvas. When he joined the Italian film industry, he worked with such famous directors as Federico Fellini (his idol) and Roberto Rossellini. In 1963 he directed his first film, Chi lavora è perduto (In capo al mondo) (1963). Afterwards, he went on to make such avante garde art films as Attraction (1969) and L'urlo (1966). He was approached in 1976 to directed a sexploitation quickie, Madam Kitty (1976), but he wisely chose to have the script rewritten, turning it into a dark, political satire. The success of "Salon Kitty" lead Penthouse magazine publisher Bob Guccione to choose Brass to helm Caligula (1979), the big-budget adaption of Gore Vidal's novel "Caligula." Tinto finished shooting the film, but when he refused to convert it into the "flesh flick" that Guccione wanted it to be by including footage of Penthouse centerfolds making out and romping, he was fired and locked out of the editing room. He later disowned the film when he saw the botched editing (the film was spliced together amateurishly from outtakes and rehearsal footage) and Guccione's hardcore sex scenes spliced in with his work. Ironically, "Caligula" remains Tinto's most famous film. After it became a huge international box-office hit, Brass was hired to shoot a spy thriller Snack Bar Budapest (1988). Afterwards, he decided that he should focus on erotica, as a way to rebel against the hypocrisy of censors, explaining that sex is a normal part of life and we should just deal with it.
With his latest films Black Angel (2002) (an update of the classic novella "Senso") and the erotic comedy Fallo (1988), Brass cemented his reputation of an undisputed master of erotica and avante-garde art films.- Director
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Fred Olen Ray spent most of his childhood in Florida, where he was always a fan of horror movies on TV. He collected autographs of many of the actors in those films where he met Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. His early career was filled with low-budget horror and science-fiction films, but the market eventually dried up and he switched to producing softcore "T&A" videos of the type shown late at night on Showtime and Cinemax. His films rarely cost more than $500,000, and he has written under at least 30 different pen names; he was one of the first to fill time at the end of his films with outtakes, now a common practice in other comedy films. The outdoor sets are often CGI backdrops and many sets are in his own home or near it. Ray often can share credit for his softcore film success with the late cinematographer/director Gary Graver, big shoes for him to fill while working with an excess of tattooed and body-beaded new performers in this genre.- Director
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Writer, director, and producer Pete Walker was born on July 4, 1939 in Brighton, Sussex, England. The son of musical comedy performer Syd Walker, Pete began his show business career as a stand-up comic at a Soho strip club. Walker went on to play bit roles in a few films prior to starting his own production company. Pete initially made 8mm glamour shorts before graduating to full-length soft-core features in the late 1960's. However, it was in the 1970's that Walker made his strongest and most impressive mark with a series of gritty and hard-hitting horror movies that include the proto-slasher The Flesh and Blood Show (1972), the startling House of Whipcord (1974), the equally shocking Frightmare (1974), and the edgy The Confessional (1976). His horror films frequently centered on the abuse of authority and the ever broadening gap between the young generation and the previous older one who are attempting to maintain order in an increasingly permissive society. After directing the enjoyable all-star horror mystery thriller House of the Long Shadows (1983), Pete retired from filmmaking altogether and decided to pursue a career in property development instead.- Director
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Ruggero Deodato was born on May 7, 1939, in Potenza, Italy, and grew up outside Rome. One of his close friends at the time was Renzo Rossellini, the son of famed Italian director Roberto Rossellini. Knowing Ruggerio's love for the movies, Renzo persuaded him to work as a second unit director on some of his father's productions. From 1958-67 Deodato worked as a second unit director for several cult film directors such as Anthony M. Dawson (Antonio Margheriti), Riccardo Freda and Joseph Losey. Deodato's directorial debut was the action-fantasy Hercules, Prisoner of Evil (1964), replacing Margheriti who quit the production. Deodato's claim to fame was the spaghetti western Django (1966). His career took off in 1968 when he directed a number of films based on comic-book characters and musicals. It was while shooting one of these films that Deodato met, and later married, Silvia Dionisio.
From 1971-75 Deodato worked in television, directing the series All'ultimo minuto (1971) as well as TV commercials, including ones for Esso Oil, Band-Aid and Fanta. Deodato returned to filmmaking with an erotic melodrama and a police thriller. At the same time his marriage fell apart. In 1977 Deodato directed the notorious Last Cannibal World (1977) and later Cannibal Holocaust (1980). Deodato traveled to New York City and directed the disturbing thriller House on the Edge of the Park (1980), a semi-follow-up to Wes Craven's The Last House on the Left (1972). Deodato made House on the Edge of the Park (1980) in just 19 days on a tiny budget. He then returned to directing action and horror flicks.
Deodato lives in Rome with his current partner, Micaela Rocco, and still works in movies and occasional TV series. He is rumored to be planning a sequel to "Cannibal Holocaust".- Director
- Actor
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
William Crain was born on 20 June 1949 in Columbus, Ohio, USA. He is a director and actor, known for Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde (1976), Blacula (1972) and The Dukes of Hazzard (1979).- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Jack Arnold reigns supreme as one of the great directors of 1950s science-fiction features. His films are distinguished by moody black and white cinematography, solid acting, smart, thoughtful scripts, snappy pacing, a genuine heartfelt enthusiasm for the genre and plenty of eerie atmosphere.
Arnold was born on October 14, 1912, in New Haven, Connecticut. He began his show business career as an actor in both on- and off-Broadway stage productions in the late 1930s and early 1940s; among the plays he appeared in are "The Time of Your Life," "Juke Box Jenny," "Blind Alibi," "China Passage," and "We're on the Jury." Arnold served in the US Army in the Signal Corps during World War II. He apprenticed under famous documentary filmmaker Robert J. Flaherty. Following his tour of duty Jack started making short films and documentaries. One short, With These Hands (1950), was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Documentary Feature. Arnold made his theatrical movie debut with the B picture Girls in the Night (1953). He then did his first foray into the science-fiction genre: the supremely spooky It Came from Outer Space (1953). Jack achieved his greatest enduring cult popularity with Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954), a scary yet poetic reworking of "Beauty and the Beast". Revenge of the Creature (1955) was a worthy sequel. Tarantula (1955) was likewise a lot of fun. The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957) rates highly as Arnold's crowning cinematic achievement; it's an intelligent and entertaining classic that's lost none of its potency throughout the years.
Arnold's final two genre entries were the enjoyable Monster on the Campus (1958) and the offbeat The Space Children (1958). His other movies are a pretty varied and interesting bunch, including the hugely successful The Mouse That Roared (1959) (which helped to establish Peter Sellers as an international star), the teen exploitation gem High School Confidential! (1958), the superior Audie Murphy western No Name on the Bullet (1959), the goofy comedy Hello Down There (1969) and the silly softcore romp The Bunny Caper (1974).
In addition to his film work, Arnold also directed episodes of such TV shows as Science Fiction Theatre (1955), Peter Gunn (1958), Perry Mason (1957), Rawhide (1959), Gilligan's Island (1964), Mod Squad (1968), Wonder Woman (1975), The Love Boat (1977), The Bionic Woman (1976) and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979).
The father of producer/casting director Susan Arnold, Jack Arnold died at age 79 on March 17, 1992.- Director
- Actor
- Writer
Toshiya Fujita was born on January 16, 1932 in Pyongyang, Korea. Following graduation from Tokyo University Fujita joined the Nikkatsu studio in 1955. Toshiya initially worked at Nikkatsu as a publicist, screenwriter, and assistant director prior to directing his first film in 1967. His debut feature won Fujita the 1967 New Directors Award from the Directors Guild of Japan. Toshiya's films for Nikkatsu alternated primarily between youth dramas and Japanese soft-core Roman porno pink movies, with the acclaimed drama The Days of No Return (1978) in particular rating as a notable success that won Toshiya a Kinema Jumpo Award for Best Director in 1979. However, Fujita achieved his greatest cult cinema popularity outside Japan with the classic action thriller Lady Snowblood (1973) and its sequel Lady Snowblood 2: Love Song of Vengeance (1974), which were two highly atypical departures for Fujita that were produced by an independent company while on hiatus from Nikkatsu. Toshiya continued directing films on a regular basis well into the late 1980's. In addition, Fujita also acted in a handful of movies. He died at age 65 from liver failure on August 30, 1997 in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan.- Director
- Writer
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Andrea Bianchi was born on 31 March 1925 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He was a director and writer, known for The Seduction of Angela (1986). He died on 14 November 2013 in Nice, France.- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Doris Wishman was born on 1 June 1912 in New York City, New York, USA. She was a director and producer, known for Satan Was a Lady (2001), Nude on the Moon (1961) and Keyholes Are for Peeping (1972). She was married to Louis Silverman and Jack Abrahms. She died on 10 August 2002 in Miami, Florida, USA.- Director
- Actor
- Producer
Harry Kerwin was born on 15 June 1930 in San Diego, California, USA. He was a director and actor, known for God's Bloody Acre (1975), Barracuda (1978) and Cheering Section (1977). He was married to Laura Wood. He died on 2 June 1979 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Dan Wolman was born on 28 October 1941 in Jerusalem, Israel. He is a director and writer, known for Hide and Seek (1980), Habiographia Shel Ben (2003) and Valley Of Strength (2010).- Director
- Writer
- Editor
Torgny Wickman was born on 22 April 1911 in Lund, Skåne län, Sweden. He was a director and writer. He died on 23 September 1997 in Katrineholm, Södermanlands län, Sweden.- Director
- Writer
- Actor
Jean Rollin was born on 3 November 1938 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, France. He was a director and writer, known for The Night of the Hunted (1980). He was married to Simone Rollin. He died on 15 December 2010 in Paris, France.- Director
- Actor
- Producer
Only one film-maker can claim the title "Godfather of Gore." That peculiar but apt identification seems to be the exclusive property of Herschell Gordon Lewis. With an unusual background that included teaching English Literature to college students, producing and directing television commercials, and voicing radio and television commercials, Herschell literally - and single-handedly - established the "Splatter Film" category of motion pictures. He accomplished this by writing and directing (including the musical score) a mini-budget movie titled "Blood Feast," shot in Miami in 1963 and released theatrically the following year. As critics lambasted the primitive effects and inattention to script and sub-par acting, audiences flocked to theaters to see why friends who had reacted to the movie's fiery marketing campaign had said, "You gotta see this." Armed with boxoffice grosses, Herschell and his producer-partner David Friedman quickly decided to build onto their newly-discovered base. Herschell wrote and directed "Two Thousand Maniacs." The lead singer of the musical group hired to perform background music had a tenor voice. Herschell had written the title song, "The South Gonna Rise Ag'in." He wanted a baritone, and without hesitation he made the switch: the voice on the sound track is his. After their third splatter film, "Color Me Blood Red," David Friedman moved to California, engaging in a different type of motio0n picture. Herschell continued to grind out one success after another, with titles such as "The Gruesome Twosome," "The Wizard of Gore," and "The Gore-Gore Girls." When major film companies began to invade his splatter-turf, Herschell took a hiatus, shifting full time to his "other career," writing advertising and mailings for marketers worldwide. He became one of a handful of experts to be inducted into the Direct Marketing Association's Hall of Fame. (Author of 32 books on marketing including the classic "On the Art of Writing Copy," Herschell is often called on to lecture on copywriting, just as he is invited to sing the theme from "Two Thousand Maniacs" at horror film festivals.) Over the years, an unusual reality came into place: Herschell's old films continued to play not just on TV screens but in theatres, years after conventional movies would have disappeared altogether. The result has been renewal of his life as a film director. Thus it is that a new Herschell Gordon Lewis movie is hoving into view: "Herschell Gordon Lewis's BloodMania," produced by James Saito in Calgary, Alberta, Canada and planned for 2015 release. Both the producer and the director encapsulate their opinion of "Herschell Gordon Lewis's BloodMania" in a single word: Enthusiastic.- Writer
- Producer
- Director
Larry Cohen was born July 15, 1936, in New York, New York, and spent time in Kingston, a small town north of New York City. At a young age, his family moved to the Riverdale section of the Bronx, and he eventually majored in film at the historic City College of New York, from which he graduated in 1963. An independent maverick who got his start in studio-based television, he is best known for inventive low-budget horror films that combine scathing social commentary with the requisite scares and occasional laughs. He was also a major player in the Blaxploitation films of the 1970s. Later in his career, he became a sought-after screenplay writer. Although not very prolific in his screen writing, these works still combine provocative social commentary--but with more conventional storytelling. Sadly, Cohen died of cancer on March 23, 2019.- Producer
- Actor
- Writer
David F. Friedman was born in Birmingham, Alabama. His father was a local newspaperman and his mother was a professional musician who played the piano and organ in silent-movie theaters and in churches. Friedman was exposed to the adult world at the age of four or five when his parents took him out "on the town" to restaurants, movies and stage shows. His father, already in his 50s when he was born, died when Friedman was 13. His mother re-married a few years later. After graduating from high school, Friedman was drafted into the US Army and served in Europe during World War II. After his discharge in 1945 he settled in Chicago, where he married and found work in filmmaking at Essanjay Films, where he knew co-owner Irwin Joseph, and they collaborated on making 8mm and 16mm underground sex hygiene films.
During the 1950s Friedman worked for Paramount Pictures as well as Essanjay Films--which later became Modern Films--as well as the independent Apex Attractions in producing and working on a number of short pictures of the underground softcore set. Friedman met Herschell Gordon Lewis in 1960 while he was working in Chicago pitching for producers for his first low-budget film, The Prime Time (1960). He and Lewis formed a partnership, with Friedman in charge of obtaining production financing, to make what were known as "nudie-cuties", very low-budget, crudely made films featuring female nudity, which was not seen in "mainstream" films.
Over the next few years Friedman and Lewis worked as mercenary filmmakers, with Friedman being the producer and sound man and Lewis being the director and cameraman. They made a series of softcore sex films, the first of which was The Adventures of Lucky Pierre (1961), then Daughter of the Sun (1962), Nature's Playmates (1962), Goldilocks and the Three Bares (1963), Boin-n-g (1963) and their first "roughie", a softcore sex film with some rather strong violence committed on the female characters, called Scum of the Earth (1963). Most of these films were shot on location in and around Miami, Florida, during winters when Friedman and Lewis lived there, away from the cold winters in Chicago.
Wanting a change of pace away from the nudie-cutie exploitation genre, Friedman and Lewis worked together to produce Blood Feast (1963), which was filmed in Miami only a few days after filming their last nudie-cutie effort, Bell, Bare and Beautiful (1963). Despite many bad reviews and the low production values, "Blood Feast" brought in more money than they had gotten making "nudie-cuties", which soon led to their turning out Two Thousand Maniacs! (1964), followed by Color Me Blood Red (1965). After that Friedman ended his partnership with Lewis for a variety of reasons, both artistic and financial. Friedman moved to Los Angeles in 1964 to continue his production work there.
In 1965 Friedman formed his own filmmaking company to make "roughies", and produced, co-wrote and co-directed The Defilers (1965), a low-budget exploitation film about two guys who kidnap and hold hostage a young woman "just for kicks". The film was a hit and restarted his career in the softcore field. A stream of more roughie and soft-core exploitation movies followed throughout the 1960s, which he produced, co-wrote and even acted in; some of these were A Sweet Sickness (1968), A Smell of Honey, a Swallow of Brine (1966), The Notorious Daughter of Fanny Hill (1966), The Brick Dollhouse (1967), The Lustful Turk (1968), among many others.
By 1969, Friedman's career began to slide as the Hollywood film industry abolished the Hays Code and adopted the new Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) rating system in which independent and Hollywood mainstream filmmakers began producing X-rated, hardcore sex films, which soon swept aside the softcore roughie genre. Unwilling to get into the hardcore adult film industry, which was very profitable (but also very illegal), Friedman turned down several offers to direct hardcore sex films because he felt that it was "not as fun" as producing or directing the simulated roughie films. He continued to produce and direct a number of softcore sex films during the early and mid 1970s, such as The Adult Version of Jekyll & Hide (1972), The Erotic Adventures of Zorro (1972), Come One, Come All (1970) and the violent grindhouse vigilante flick Johnny Firecloud (1975).
In addition to producing, Friedman also ran a theater in Los Angeles for several years which ran many of his exploitation films. Though producing exploitation movies was no longer lucrative, he occasionally dabbled in various independent productions in Los Angeles through the 1970s and into the 1980s. By then, Friedman more or less retired from film producing and re-settled back in Alabama, though he continued to come out of retirement to lend a hand at producing independent erotic or gore horror films, as he put it, "just for fun." Most recently was when he was reunited with Herschell Gordon Lewis in 2001 to produce Blood Feast 2: All U Can Eat (2002), as well as co-produce a remake of "Two Thousand Maniacs!" that was titled 2001 Maniacs (2005).- Producer
- Actor
- Director
Ted V. Mikels was born on 29 April 1929 in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA. He was a producer and actor, known for The Doll Squad (1973), Blood Orgy of the She-Devils (1973) and Ten Violent Women (1982). He was married to Geneva Kirsch. He died on 16 October 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.- Director
- Producer
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Gilbert Roussel was born on 13 October 1946 in Saint-Ouen, Seine-Saint-Denis, France. He is a director and producer.- Director
- Writer
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Norifumi Suzuki was born on 26 November 1933 in Shizuoka, Japan. He was a director and writer, known for Truck Rascals (1975), Kantô Tekiya ikka: Goromen himatsuri (1971) and Girl Boss Revenge: Sukeban (1973). He died on 15 May 2014 in Tokyo, Japan.- Composer
- Producer
- Music Department
William Allen Castleman was born on 7 June 1922 in Santa Monica, California, USA. He was a composer and producer, known for Johnny Firecloud (1975) and Bummer (1973). He was married to Faye. He died on 5 February 2006.- Producer
- Writer
- Director
Meir is a filmmaker most known for I Spit on Your Grave (1978) about one woman and a group of maniacs. In 2010, Steven R. Monroe directed the remake I Spit on Your Grave (2010) starring Sarah Butler & Jeff Branson. Meir executive produced the film and was an associate producer for the remake as well. Steven R. Monroe also directed I Spit on Your Grave 2 (2013) which Meir produced. He has produced two more sequels of the franchise.- Writer
- Director
- Actor
He was only six years old when he started composing music under the protection of his brother Enrique. After the Spanish Civil War he was able to continue his studies at the Real Conservatorio de Madrid, where he finished piano and harmony. Being a Bachelor of Law and an easy-read novel writer (under the pseudonym David Khume), he signed on to enter the Instituto de Investigaciones y Experiencias Cinematográicas (IIEC), where he stayed for only two years, while he worked simultaneously as a director and theater actor. Later he went to Paris to study directing techniques at the I.D.H.E.C. (University of Sorbonne), where he used to go into seclusion for hours to watch films at the film archive. Back in Spain he began rted his huge cinematographic work as a composer, with Cómicos (1954) and El hombre que viajaba despacito (1957), and later worked as an assistant director to Juan Antonio Bardem, León Klimovsky, Luis Saslavsky, Julio Bracho, Fernando Soler and Joaquín Luis Romero Marchent, among others. He also worked at Ágata Films S.A. as production manager and writer. His first works as a director were industrial and cultural short films. However, he soon applied all his knowledge and experience to his feature directorial debut, Tenemos 18 años (1959). From that moment on all his work was supported by co-production. His Succubus (1968) was nominated for the Festival of Berlin, and this event gave him an international reputation. His career got more and more consolidated in the following years, and his endless creativity enabled him to tackle films in all genres, from "B" horror films to pure hardcore sex films. His productions have always been low-budget, but he nevertheless managed to work extraordinarily quickly, often releasing several titles at the same time, using the same shots in more than one film. Some of his actors relate how they they were hired for one film and later saw their name in two or more different ones. As the Spanish cinema evolved, Jesús managed to adapt to the new circumstances and always maintained a constant activity, activity that gave a place in his films to a whole filming crew. Apart from his own production company, Manacoa Films, he also worked for companies like Auster Films S.L. (Paul Auster), Cinematográfica Fénix Films (Arturo Marcos), the French Comptoir Français du Film (Robert de Nesle), Eurociné (Daniel Lesoeur and Marius Lesoeur), Elite Films Productions (Erwin C. Dietrich), Spain's Fervi Films (Fernando Vidal Campos) or Golden Films Internacional S.A. He acted in almost all of his films, playing musicians, lawyers, porters and others, all of them sinister, manic and comic characters. Among the aliases he used--apart from Jesús Franco, Jess Franco or Franco Manera--were Jess Frank, Robert Zimmerman, Frank Hollman, Clifford Brown, David Khune, Frarik Hollman, Toni Falt, James P. Johnson, Charlie Christian, David Tough, Cady Coster, Lennie Hayden, Lulú Laverne and Betty Carter. Lina Romay has been almost a constant in his films, and it's very probable that in some of them she has been credited as the director instead of him. In many of the more than 180 films he's directed he has also worked as composer, writer, cinematographer and editor. His influence has been notable all over Europe (he even contacted producer Roger Corman in the US). From his huge body of work we can deduce that Jesús Franco is one of the most restless directors of Spanish cinema. Many of his films have had problems in getting released, and others have been made directly for video. His work is often a do-it-yourself effort. More than once his staunchest supporters have found his "new" films to contain much footage from one or more of his older ones. Jesús Franco is a survivor in a time when most of his colleagues tried to please the government censors. He broke with all that and got the independence he was seeking. He always went upstream in an ephemeral industry that fed opportunists and curbed the activity of many professionals. Jess Franco died in Malaga, Spain, on April 2, 2013, of a stroke.- Producer
- Writer
- Director
Erwin C. Dietrich was the most successful and influential movie "entrepreneur" in Switzerland for decades. Already in his teenage years he was interested in movies and observed all happenings in Hollywood from his home in St. Gallen. He quit his dream of becoming an actor rather early on and instead started focusing on his sense for artistic trends appealing to audiences. Starting in 1955 he began producing movies, first with his company "Urania": The movies THE MAN IN THE BLACK DERBY and MODEL HUSBAND starring popular Swiss comedian Walter Roderer turned into big successes that still haven't lost their popularity. At around the time where the "Edgar Wallace" thrillers became popular in Germany, Erwin brought NYLON NOOSE and STRANGLER OF THE TOWER starring German movie stars, such as Dietmar Schönherr, to the cinemas. Movies in the mid-60s increasingly included more sexually open themes, a trend Erwin could not and did not want to miss out on. An early example is ST. PAULI BETWEEN NIGHT AND MORNING he produced, which is characterized by an almost artistic arc between common thriller story and the newly discovered erotic appearance. It is exactly those examples that are highly respected by movie buffs around the world and are being rediscovered in his early productions. Later, Erwin achieved significant commercial success with his directorial debut in 1968, the movie adaptation of Guy De Maupassant's novel THE COLONEL'S NIECES with the same title. With this movie he hit the nerve of movie-goers and despite the massively censored scenes the audience showed up in droves. Over 45 more movies followed until 1980. Movies that he either directed or produced, often using pseudonyms such "Michael Thomas" or "Manfred Gregor" under the umbrella of newly "Elite-Film" (later: "Ascot Film GmbH"). Most of these movies came to life in a very informal environment, with a small crew in his studios in Rümlang, where the set pieces were rearranged on the fly. Some highlights can be found, in particular those starring Ingrid Steeger or French erotic star number one, Brigitte Lahaie. These movies have meanwhile advanced to cult status and are long running favorites at movie festivals and in home cinemas worldwide. Erwin often mentioned his favorite movie to be his remake of THE COLONEL'S NIECES, starring Brigitte Lahaie. Jess Franco, who for years has been ridiculed as a cheap grunge director and yet in the end received the "Goya" award, the Spanish Oscar, made 17 movies in this work period with Erwin C. Dietrich and called it the most productive and pleasant period of his career. Movies such as LOVE LETTERS OF A PORTUGUESE NUN or JACK THE RIPPER with divine performances by Klaus Kinski are now highly praised by movie buffs worldwide, incl. industry friends and fans such as Joe Dante and Quentin Tarantino (who once called Erwin the "Swiss Roger Corman"). On top of that Erwin's movie distribution business "Avis" which brought over 400 movies to local cinemas, flourished. He jumped on the "exploitation movie" bandwagon alone, yet this was not enough for movie buff Erwin. He was looking to get recognized at festivals and by the elite of film critics. And he got it. THE STORY OF PIERA produced by him and directed by Marco Ferreri, starring Isabelle Huppert and Marcello Mastroianni, may not have been a commercially comparable success to Erwin's other productions but it turned into a huge hit at the festivals, and Hanna Schygulla received the "Golden Palm" in Cannes for her performance. Even on an international level things looked up: the action spectacle THE WILD GEESE which he co-produced with Euan Lloyd from Britain, catapulted Erwin into an A-league that was unknown at that time, and garnered him international recognition. In addition, the star-studded cast that included Richard Harris, Roger Moore, Richard Burton, and Hardy Krüger did its share; the movie was seen by 4 million movie-goers in Germany alone and advanced to become a huge blockbuster in 1978, ultimately winning the "Goldene Leinwand" award. Following this success Erwin launched similar additional big productions on the big screen, including ESCAPE TO ATHENA and THE SEA WOLVES. Convinced by their success Erwin began production along with business partner Peter Baumgartner (and Peter's dubbing studios in Berlin, "Cinephon") three action spectacles to be shot in the Philippines. Emphasized by a gigantic marketing campaign (including an ecstatic Klaus Kinski dominating the promo tour) he released in the mid-80s the "mercenary trilogy" consisting of CODENAME WILDGEESE, COMMANDO LEOPARD and THE COMMANDER on the big screen. The Hollywood cast including Klaus Kinski, Ernest Borgnine, and Lee Van Cleef impressed everyone. During that time he also opened up the first cinema-multiplex in Switzerland called "Capitol". Later he expanded it with the "Cinemax". In the beginning of the 90s, after the dance movie DANCE ACADEMY 2 - DANCE TO WIN, the two Swiss comedies EIN SCHWEIZER NAMENS NÖTZLI and DER DOPPELTE NÖTZLI, as well as over 100 other productions, Erwin retired from the active movie production business and committed himself to his movie distribution company "Ascot-Elite" which was taken over by his children a few years ago and still today this largest independent movie distributor in Switzerland is managed by them. At last, Erwin C. Dietrich led the supervisory board and every morning he reviewed the box office results of the previous day. He passionately committed himself to the digital restoration of his cinematic legacy to preserve it for all future generations.- Actor
- Editor
- Director
Luigi Batzella was born on 27 May 1924 in San Sperate, Sardinia, Italy. He was an actor and editor. He died on 18 November 2008 in San Sperate, Sardinia, Italy.- Editor
- Director
- Writer
Born in 1931, Bruno Mattei grew up in Rome, Italy, where his father owned a small film editing studio. At age 20 Bruno started working odd jobs at his father's company as his assistant, then went on to other small spots. He wanted to follow in his father's footsteps as a film editor, and soon found himself working as an editor for a number of directors, including Roberto Bianchi Montero and Nick Nostro. Mattei claimed to have edited over 100 films in the 1960s and early 1970s. After working with famed Spanish director Jess Franco, Mattei made his debut as a director with the drama Armida, il dramma di una sposa (1970) under the alias "Jordon B. Matthews". He eventually had more pseudonyms than any working director in the world. He returned to editing before making another comeback in 1976 with two low-budget Nazi exploitation films, Women's Camp 119 (1977) (aka "Women's Camp 119") and Casa privata per le SS (1977) (aka "SS Girls"). Mattei followed these taboo-breaking films with excursions into porno films and mondo "shockumentaries", all directed under his many pseudonyms, concentrating on "shock value" with films such as Mondo erotico (1973), "Libiodomania" and "Libidomania 2". Always on the lookout for new exploitation avenues, Mattei followed with "nunsploitation", with the softcore sex film The True Story of the Nun of Monza (1980) and the violent sex thriller The Other Hell (1981). Both films involved a partnership with writer/director Claudio Fragasso, who helped him write and direct the back-to-back productions. Using yet another alias, "Vincent Dawn", Mattei directed Hell of the Living Dead (1980) (aka "Night of the Zombies"), a low-budged zombie picture inspired by other zombie cannibal movies such as Dawn of the Dead (1978) and Lucio Fulci's Zombie (1979). "Virus" was filmed in Spain and used jungle footage from New Guinea and a patch soundtrack from Goblins "Dawn of the Dead" soundtrack, which was a minor hit in Italy and abroad. After directing two women's prison films starring Laura Gemser, Mattei moved to directing sword-and-sorcery flicks, starting with The Seven Magnificent Gladiators (1983). Both Mattei and Fragasso collaborated on the sci-fi/horror flick Rats: Night of Terror (1984), inspired by the futuristic movies of the early 1980s. Mattei considers this his best work, despite his still having to work with a very low budget. He worked relentlessly through the 1980s, directing a pair of "spaghetti westerns", some action flicks and about half of Zombie 3 (1988) after Lucio Fulci was taken off the production, though Mattei was not credited with it. In the early 1990s Mattei directed a series of erotic thrillers and a made-for-TV movie, Cruel Jaws (1995), which was inspired by Steven Spielberg's Jaws (1975). Mattei continued making films, with more than 50 to his credit by the 200s. In early 2007 his health began to decline rapidly after he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Despite his doctor's warnings, he went through with a surgical operation to have the tumor removed in May of that year. After the surgery he fell into a coma from complications, and died a few days later on May 21, 2007 at age 75. Though some people consider his films to be cheap, insipid and technically inept due in large part to their low budgets and poor production values, Bruno Mattei remains an influential cult film director around the world for his radical film making and willingness to direct pretty much anything with a taboo-breaking topic.- Director
- Writer
- Producer
José Bénazéraf was born on 8 January 1922 in Casablanca, Morocco. He was a director and writer. He died on 1 December 2012 in Chiclana de la Frontera, Spain.- Writer
- Director
- Editor
Alberto Cavallone was born on 28 August 1938 in Milan, Lombardy, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for Afrika (1973), La gemella erotica (1980) and Dal nostro inviato a Copenaghen (1970). He was married to Maria Pia Luzi. He died on 12 November 1997 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Director
- Art Director
Eberhard Schröder was born on 18 November 1933 in Hannover, Lower Saxony, Germany. He was an assistant director and director, known for Massage Parlor '73 (1972), Madame and Her Niece (1969) and Hausfrauen-Report (1971). He died on 1 April 1974 in Munich, Bavaria, West Germany.- Director
- Cinematographer
- Camera and Electrical Department
Joe D'Amato was born Aristide Massaccesi on December 15, 1936, in Rome, Italy. At age 14 he began working for his father, a chief electrician and later the founder of the company A.C.M. By going to school in the daytime, Massaccesi worked afternoons part-time as a stagehand and stage cameraman around various film sets. After attending grade school, from 1953-57, Massaccesi worked for his father. Mole Richardson, another motion picture company, was looking for someone to work as an assistant cameraman and Massaccesi jumped at the opportunity. Starting in 1969 he worked as director of photography as well as assistant director for a number of films until 1974. His first directing work was in 1972's low-budget Stay Away from Trinity... When He Comes to Eldorado (1972), co-directed by Diego Spataro, under the pseudonym Dick Spitfire, but it was a commercial failure. Later that same year Massaccesi directed a western (under the name of Oskar Faradine). He then used his assistant's name, Romano Gastaldi, for his next film, Fra' Tazio da Velletri (1973), as well as a few others.
Massaccesi was reluctant to use his real name early in his directing career, since he was still known mainly as a director of photography and didn't want his directing jobs to jeopardize his cinematography career. He used his real name for screenplay and cinematography roles, but worked under many aliases (such as Michael Wotruba) to disguise the authorship of some films in order not to mix up the different genres of comedy, western, drama, thrillers and others. He used so many phony names that he may well have more pseudonyms credited to him than any other director in the world.
Massaccesi entered the horror genre with Death Smiles on a Murderer (1973) under his real name, which inspired him to make other gothic horror films. Under a new pseudonym, Joe D'Amato, he directed soft-core, erotic films starring Laura Gemser, such as Emanuelle and Francoise (1975), Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals (1977), Emanuelle in America (1977), Erotic Nights of the Living Dead (1980) and others. He also directed such action films as Tough to Kill (1979).
Massaccesi, now referring to himself as Joe D'Amato, entered the "gore" genere films with Beyond the Darkness (1979), which remains his most successful horror film, shot in four weeks on a low budget entirely at a villa near Bressanone and which had an excellent music soundtrack by the rock group Goblin. His next horror film, but less successful than the previous one, was The Grim Reaper (1980), directed as "Peter Newton". The film starred Tisa Farrow, sister of Mia Farrow and the star of Zombie (1979), another gore genre flick.
During the 1980s and 1990s D'Amato directed over 100 hardcore porn sex films for the Italian video market, although under his many pseudonyms he continued to direct and produce other films. One of them was StageFright (1987) directed by Michele Soavi on which, under his real name, Massaccesi served as producer. He then directed two "Ator the Invincible" films. He directed the violent, hardcore Caligula: The Untold Story (1982), using the name "David Hills", a commercial exploitation (some might say "rip-off") of the successful film by Tinto Brass.
D'Amato's other films during the 1980s were Paradiso Blu (1980) and violent adventure films such as Deep Blood (1989), which were filmed in Florida, and Ghosthouse (1988). Some of D'Amato's greatest successes abroad were L'alcova (1985) and Pomeriggio caldo (1989), as well as the horror-thriller Hitcher in the Dark (1989) (aka "Hitcher in the Dark").
His long film career came to an abrupt end when, in January 1999, he suffered an unexpected and fatal heart attack at his home in Rome. He was 62. Joe D'Amato had made his mark on Italian cinema as a talented director, scriptwriter, producer and cinematographer with scores of films and more than a dozen aliases to his credit.