Ottavio Alessi

Writing

Ottavio Alessi

Born 1919-01-01 · Cammarata, Sicily, Italy

Ottavio Alessi was an Italian screenwriter, producer, and film director whose career spanned from the 1940s to the 1970s. Born in Cammarata, Sicily, he entered the film industry in 1940 as an assistant director. By 1945, Alessi had transitioned to screenwriting, contributing to both genre and art films. He collaborated with notable directors such as Pietro Germi, Franco Rossi, Folco Quilici, and Luciano Salce. Alessi directed two films in the 1960s: What Ever Happened to Baby Toto? (1964), a parody of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, and Top Sensation (1969). His screenwriting credits include The Testimony (1946), Amici per la pelle (1955), A Woman Alone (1956), The Mongols (1961), Charge of the Black Lancers (1962), Emanuelle in Bangkok (1976), and Emanuelle in America (1977). Alessi's work is noted for its versatility and contribution to Italian cinema during a transformative era.

Acting credits

Behind the camera

The Seducers poster
4.9

Ulla, a prostitute is hired by the despicable Mudy, mother of the shy and mentally disturbed 20-year-old Tony with a tendency toward pyromania. She is invited on a sea cruise where she is meant to "take" his virginity. Also invited on the cruise are the provocative Paula and her husband Aldo, who are constantly striving to win the favor of a wealthy woman in hope of obtaining an oil concession. Despite her efforts, Ulla has no effect on the young man until the yacht stops on a Mediterranean island inhabited only by a goat herder and his wife, Beba. Tony is attracted to her, but little by little his mental disorders arise, and the story ends in tragedy.

The Seducers

1969

The Seducers poster
4.9

Ulla, a prostitute is hired by the despicable Mudy, mother of the shy and mentally disturbed 20-year-old Tony with a tendency toward pyromania. She is invited on a sea cruise where she is meant to "take" his virginity. Also invited on the cruise are the provocative Paula and her husband Aldo, who are constantly striving to win the favor of a wealthy woman in hope of obtaining an oil concession. Despite her efforts, Ulla has no effect on the young man until the yacht stops on a Mediterranean island inhabited only by a goat herder and his wife, Beba. Tony is attracted to her, but little by little his mental disorders arise, and the story ends in tragedy.

The Seducers

1969

Damned in Venice poster
5.5

A blind boy, who lives alone with his mean sister in a rundown hotel in Venice, receives a vision that warns him of the upcoming birth of the Antichrist. Soon, his sister mysteriously becomes pregnant.

Damned in Venice

1978

Cinderella '80 poster
7.0

A feisty 18-year-old Italian-American New Yorker named Cindy is sent off to Rome with her irascible stepmother and vain stepsisters. On the way, she meets and falls in love with, globetrotting bagpacker Mizio, who eventually turns out to be of Italian nobility. There's a fairy stand-in in the form of a spaced-out astrologer, a dance, and she even loses a shoe at one point. Care to venture a guess how it all turns out?

Cinderella '80

1984

Bali poster
4.2

The wife of a European photographer on assignment in exotic Bali falls for an enigmatic ex patriot under the spell of a mystical death cult...

Bali

1970

Odissea nuda poster
10.0

A director arrives in Tahiti to make a film, but soon he lets himself be captured by the exotic charm of the local places and beauties. with E. Salerno.

Odissea nuda

1961

The Precarious Bank Teller poster
5.4

The accountant Arturo De Fanti has problems in the bank because he threatens to be hunted. But he does not import of this troubles, because he hopes to find comfort with his lover.

The Precarious Bank Teller

1980

The Mongols poster
5.2

During the Mongol invasion of Poland, a conflict between Mongol Emperor Genghis Khan and his oldest son Ogotai ensues when the former aims for peace and the latter itches for war and conquest.

The Mongols

1961

Adultery Italian Style poster
6.2

A betrayed wife decides to teach her philandering husband a lesson in this riotous farce. Marta (Catherine Spaak) discovers that husband Franco (Nino Manfredi) has been stepping out with her own best friend (Maria Grazia Buccella), and gets revenge by inventing an imaginary lover. Franco takes the bait, leading to improbable but hilarious complications.

Adultery Italian Style

1966

Charge of the Black Lancers poster
5.7

Sergio of Tula goes to Dubno to free Princess Mascia, who is prisoner of Queen Jassa, but he is seduced by the latter, who stirs his ambition by putting her army at his service to take King Stephen's throne.

Charge of the Black Lancers

1962

Wild Cats on the Beach poster
5.2

Various short stories. Giovanna arrives from Rome with her husband Alberto for a film audition. The journalist Gino comes to interview the great industrial Signore Carsoli. The famous American actress Rita is in search of her umpteenth husband. Leopoldo and Angelina from Sicily are on vacation in Rome where they meet the street smart Nicola.

Wild Cats on the Beach

1959

Juke Box - Screams of Love poster
5.0

After serving a conviction for fraud Mario tries to continue with his life and promises Marisa to marry her...

Juke Box - Screams of Love

1959

The Snake God poster
4.4

A beautiful Italian woman is told by her black friend about the Carribean love god Jambaya who appears in the form of the snake. By the end of the movie, Cassini has decided to give herself to Jambaya while Cunningham departs with her white friend's ex-lover, establishing a neat symmetry between their respective fantasies of exoticism.

The Snake God

1970

The Man Who Wagged His Tail poster
6.8

The owner of a building tyrannizes his immigrant tenants. Transformed into a dog by an old woman's curse, he experiences all the hardships of his situation; when a child's affection turns him back into a man, his soul is radically changed.

The Man Who Wagged His Tail

1957

The Rip-Off poster
4.5

Crime Comedy starring Walter Chiari, Maurizio Arena and Ettore Manni. Directed by Luciano Ercoli in 1977, but shelved when producer Niccolo De Nora was kidnapped... ironically the theme of the movie. A band of criminals plan one final heist, to kidnap a wealthy French businessman.

The Rip-Off

1977

Friends for Life poster
7.1

Mario and the new kid Franco gradually become the best of friends, but their friendship is tested when one of them wins a competition.

Friends for Life

1955

Tiko and the Shark poster
8.3

Filmed in French Polynesia with a Hawaiian cast, the story revolves around the adventures and romances of a young Polynesian boy as he grows up. As a child he raises and trains a baby shark as a pet, which he shares with his island playmate Diana. After a decade the three are reunited, but the world has changed: Tiko and Diana have become adults; the shark has become a dangerous man-eater; and civilization has encroached on the tropical island.

Tiko and the Shark

1962

The Black Decameron poster
4.0

Five unrelated tales: (1) "The Ravishing Queen" / "La Reina Bella", in which the queen choses a king by devious endurance tests of the pretendants; (2) "The Punished Lovers", in which a fake blind husband is 'cured' after having the culprits banished from the tribe; (3) "The Old Prostitute" who manages to take revenge from all the village dignitaries who wrongfully condemned her brother; (4) "The Endless Search" that does not end until a hunter finds his perfect end-game; (5) "The Crazy Woman" whose illness was not exactly of the mind, but of an (almost) insatiable lust.

The Black Decameron

1972

A Woman Alone poster
3.0

Three women share the same apartment and the same goal, to find a wealthy husband and settle down.

A Woman Alone

1955

What Ever Happened to Baby Toto? poster
6.7

A pair of brothers, Baby Toto and Pietro, sons of different mothers, live stealing suitcases at the Termini Station in Rome. After a theft, they discover that the stolen suitcase they got from an apparent sweet old lady actually contains a corpse.

What Ever Happened to Baby Toto?

1964

What Ever Happened to Baby Toto? poster
6.7

A pair of brothers, Baby Toto and Pietro, sons of different mothers, live stealing suitcases at the Termini Station in Rome. After a theft, they discover that the stolen suitcase they got from an apparent sweet old lady actually contains a corpse.

What Ever Happened to Baby Toto?

1964

La ragazzola poster
10.0

A girl out of the reform school leaves her boyfriend and marries a street vendor.

La ragazzola

1965

Dick Smart 2.007 poster
7.0

Lady Lorraine Lister, a financer of expensive experiments, has discovered a way to obtain pure diamonds by the means of a radiation device. She hires five renowned scientists to participate in additional experiments regarding this new contrivance. However, it soon happens that the device is stolen, and the scientists mysteriously disappear! Agent Dick Smart is called in by the CIA to track down the scientists and recover the device. With the help of incredible gadgets and lots of bravado, he manages to locate the source of an underground operation in Rio De Janeiro: an operation headed by a mysterious man with a speaking device fastened to his throat.

Dick Smart 2.007

1967

The Testimony poster
6.5

A man, standing trial for robbery with murder, faces the death penalty. The testimony of an old civil servant may give him a reprieve but not peace of mind.

The Testimony

1946