Directing

Fernando Di Leo

Born 1932-01-11 · San Ferdinando di Puglia, Italy

Fernando Di Leo (11 January 1932 – 2 December 2003) was an Italian film director and script writer. He made 17 films as a director and about 50 scripts from 1964 to 1985. Fernando Di Leo was born on 11 January 1932 in San Ferdinando di Puglia. After briefly working in Rome's film school Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, di Leo made his debut as a director as part of the omnibus comedy "Gli eroi di ieri, oggi, domani" with his episode titled "Un posto in paradiso" (transl. "A Place in Heaven"). Following this Di Leo wrote several scripts for Westerns, often uncredited. This included work on "A Fistful of Dollars", "For a Few Dollars More". Some of his Westerns had uncredited literary sources, such as "Days of Vengeance" which is loosely based on Alexandre Dumas' "The Count of Monte Cristo". Di Leo was a fan of film noir and wanted to make an Italian version of these films. Among his first efforts was the script for Mino Guerrini's "Date for a Murder" based on Franco Enna's novel "Tempo di massacro", written in 1955. In Di Leo's version, the setting is moved to a contemporary Rome and has elements of contemporary spy films. Di Leo worked with Guerrini again on the film "Gangsters '70" which did not do well at the box office. Di Leo began directing more of his own films at the time including the war film "Red Roses for the Fuhrer" and a few erotic films: "A Woman on Fire", "A Wrong Way to Love" and "Seduction". From 1969 to 1976, di Leo was able to produce many of his own works with his production company Duania cineproduzioni 70. He followed this with a return to noir with "Naked Violence", a film adapting a novel by Giorgio Scerbanenco, a writer who Di Leo would adapt for several future film productions. Di Leo would make a giallo film with "Slaughter Hotel" starring Klaus Kinski and Margaret Lee. Following this Di Leo worked on "Caliber 9" and "The Italian Connection" which were both inspired by the writing of Scerbanenco. He followed up this film "Il Boss", a film which got Di Leo in trouble with politicians and authorities due to the film's display of connections between the mafia and Italy's major party Democrazia Cristiana. Di Leo followed this up with "Shoot First, Die Later" in 1974. Di Leo worked through the latter half of the 1970s directing "Mister Scarface", "Kidnap Syndicate", and "Nick the Sting". He also wrote scripts for other directors such as Romolo Guerrieri's "Young, Violent, Dangerous", and Ruggero Deodato's "Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man". Di Leo's last film produced by his company Duania cineproduzioni 70 was "Rulers of the City" in 1976. He continued with a few more films after with the film noir "Blood and Diamonds", the erotic drama "To Be Twenty" - both in 1978, and "Madness" in 1980. Di Leo worked in television in the 1980s, starting with the television series "L'assassino ha le ore contate", which involved six one-hour-long made-for-TV films produced by RAI Uno which as of 2013 are unreleased. Di Leo also made "The Violent Breed" and his last film "Killer vs. Killers" in the mid-1980s. "Killer vs. Killers" wasn't released theatrically in Italy and only surfaced 20 years later on DVD. Di Leo died in December 2003.

Acting credits

8.0

Two bounty hunters both pursue the brutal and sadistic bandit, El Indio, who has a large bounty on his head.

For a Few Dollars More

1965

5.8

Lia and Tina are two beautiful girls who meet and realize that they have a lot in common. They are both young, beautiful and pissed off, so they decide to hitchhike their way to Rome to find Nazariota's commune, a place to stay for free and have all the sex they want... or so they think. Things don't go as they have planned though, and soon they become involved in prostitution, the police and an aggressive gang.

To Be Twenty

1978

6.8

A hitman finds himself embroiled in the middle of a Mafia war between the Sicilians and the Calabrians.

The Boss

1973

6.3

Once again billed as Montgomery Wood, Giuliano Gemma plays a civil war soldier who returns to his family land to find his family decimated, his property taken over by a family of Mexican bandits and his fiancee about to marry the Mexican gangster behind all this. Bent on revenge, he goes undercover disguised as a Mexican and discovers he has a daughter!

The Return of Ringo

1965

5.2

Anna is the personal secretary of a rich industrialist who falls in love with her boss' daughter's leftist boyfriend, Carlo. Anna pretty much severs her ties with her boss (who she also had romantic moments with) and after she moves in with the college student Carlo she attempts to provide for both, but soon fails in finding job opportunities and sinks into the sleazy world of drugs and prostitution. Carlo's right wing brother demands Carlo begins his relationship with daughter of the powerful businessman in order to guarantee financial freedom for the rest of his life.

Loving Badly

1969

Short documentary on the 1972 Italo-crime classic Caliber 9

Caliber 9: Documentary

2004

6.4

The life and work of one of the great masters of Italian cinema, Sergio Leone (1929-89); a rich and fascinating portrait through unpublished testimonies of collaborators, actors, directors and critics who reconstruct every aspect of his creative activity.

Sergio Leone: cinema, cinema

2001

4.8

A sexy graduate student is giving her thesis presentation, which creates quite a stir since it reveals that she has just posed as a prostitute for several months to do sociological research for her thesis. She relates various stories of her experiences to her salivating thesis committee and a large audience of curious on-lookers.

Italian Sex

1974

Paura: Lucio Fulci Remembered - Volume 1 poster

6.0

This documentary examines the life and legacy of controversial Italian filmmaker Lucio Fulci through interviews with his colleagues, each of whom answers the question, "What is your fondest memory of Lucio Fulci?". The responses are as varied as the people who knew the late writer-director, providing a nuanced look at the man behind such gory grindhouse classics as City of the Living Dead and The House by the Cemetery.

Paura: Lucio Fulci Remembered - Volume 1

2008

6.8

Nick Hezard, a young con man, wants to avenge the death of a friend of his and organizes a swindle trying to cheat Robert Turner, an American businessman he thinks responsible for his friend's death. He succeeds in getting a hundred thousand swiss francs and uses them to carry out the second part of his plan.

Nick the Sting

1976

Tarantino reveres them, and for good reason. Welcome to the world of the kings of the Italian B-Movie.

I Tarantiniani

2013

5.3

No synopsis available yet.

Alejandra, mon amour

1979

No artwork available

9.0

The story of the legendary Italian director Fernando Di Leo (Milano Calibro 9, Il boss) narrated by himself and others members of his crew.

Fernando di Leo: La morale del genere

2004

8.0

A young man forces his sister to work as a prostitute to earn enough money to survive.

Perros de la noche

1986

No artwork available

Short documentary focused on origins of the Mala, or Italian mob movie genre

The Origin of the Mala

2004

Behind the camera

7.8

The Man With No Name enters the Mexican village of San Miguel in the midst of a power struggle among the three Rojo brothers and sheriff John Baxter. When a regiment of Mexican soldiers bearing gold intended to pay for new weapons is waylaid by the Rojo brothers, the stranger inserts himself into the middle of the long-simmering battle, selling false information to both sides for his own benefit.

A Fistful of Dollars

1964

5.3

An escaped convicted murderer invades the cottage of a man, his wife and the wife's sister, whereupon he proceeds to torment this already dysfunctional trio with rape and violence.

Madness

1980

5.3

An escaped convicted murderer invades the cottage of a man, his wife and the wife's sister, whereupon he proceeds to torment this already dysfunctional trio with rape and violence.