Antonio Margheriti

Antonio Margheriti (19 September 1930 – 4 November 2002), also known under the pseudonym Anthony M. Dawson, was a prolific Italian filmmaker. He was born in Rome and died in 2002 from a heart attack in Monterosi, Viterbo, near Rome at the age of 72.^[1]

Margheriti started out in the Italian film industry in 1956 as a screenwriter. He started directing in 1960, his first film being "Assignment Outer Space". Margheriti is known for his science fiction, horror, spaghetti western and action movies. He was the director of such cult movies as Cannibal Apocalypse, Castle of Blood, The Virgin of Nuremberg, Assignment Outer Space, Wild Wild Planet, Naked You Die, Mr. Super Invisible, The Last Hunter, Battle of the Worlds and numerous others. Most of his films were directed under the pseudonym of Anthony M. Dawson. He stopped using his real name in the USA early in his career, when he realized the English translation of the name "Antonio Margheriti" was "Anthony Daisies", and he thought it sounded too effeminate.

He was the only Italian director who worked directly for American production companies like MGM, United Artists, 20th Century Fox, Columbia Pictures, etc. with films like: Yor, the Hunter from the Future, Take a Hard Ride, Killer Fish, etc. Margheriti said his action/adventure films were his favorites, and his least favorite movies were the sword-and-sandal peplum films he made in the early 1960s (such as "Devil of the Desert vs the Son of Hercules" and "Giants of Rome").

For years, director Paul Morrissey disputed Margheriti's claim that he had directed "Andy Warhol's Frankenstein" in the early 1970s, saying that Margheriti was mostly just a technical advisor on that film. Morrissey said Margheriti did however direct a very, very brief segment of the movie (mostly the scenes involving the two children roaming around in the lab).

Margheriti worked with many well-known genre actors such as Lee Van Cleef, John Saxon, Claude Rains, John Morghen, Klaus Kinski, Barbara Steele, Reb Brown, Donald Pleasence, Yul Brynner, David Warbeck, Luciano Pigozzi, Marvin Hagler, Terence Hill, Fred Williamson, Christopher Lee and many others. Most of his later films were shot in the Philippines (especially his war films). Margheriti also collaborated on the special effects in two Italian cult films which he did not direct, Sergio Leone's "Fistful of Dynamite" (1971) and Aldo Lado's "The Humanoid" (1979).

Margheriti retired from filmmaking in 1996 at age 66. He died in 2002 of natural causes. Margheriti's son Edoardo and daughter Antonella are both also involved in filmmaking. Eli Roth's character in the 2009 Quentin Tarantino film Inglourious Bastards took Margheriti as his namesake.

The Gamma-One series

Margheriti made two of the first ever Italian space movies in 1960 and 1961 respectively; Assignment Outer Space (known as "Space Men" in Italy) and Battle of the Worlds (known as "The Planet of Extinct Men" in Italy).

In 1965, since he was considered an accomplished science-fiction film director who could work wonders with a very small budget, Margheriti was hired by MGM to direct four Italian space movies that became known as the Gamma-One series. He finished all four films in three months. The films in the series were made to be distributed in the USA (sold directly to late-night television) under the following titles: Wild Wild Planet, War of the Planets, War Between the Planets and Snow Devils. A fifth film was later made in the Gamma One series in Japan in 1968 entitled The Green Slime (aka Gamma One: Operation Outer Space) which starred Robert Horton, but Margheriti was not involved with that one.

Filmography

• Assignment Outer Space (1960) aka Space Men (Margheriti's first film as director)
• Battle of the Worlds (1961) aka The Planet of Extinct Men, starring Claude Rains
• The Golden Arrow (1962) fantasy peplum starring Tab Hunter
• Castle of Blood (1963) aka Danza Macabra starring Barbara Steele
• The Fall of Rome (1963) peplum
• The Virgin of Nuremberg (1963) aka Horror Castle, starring Christopher Lee
• Devil of the Desert Against the Son of Hercules (1964) aka Anthar, the Invincible, aka The Slave Merchants
• Hercules, Prisoner of Evil (1964) aka Ursus, Terror of the Kirghiz, co-directed by Ruggero Deodato
• Giants of Rome (1964) peplum starring Richard Harrison
• The Long Hair of Death (1964) starring Barbara Steele
• Wild, Wild Planet (1965) aka I Criminali della Galassia/ Criminals of the Galaxy (1st film in the Gamma-One series)
• War of the Planets (1966) aka I Diafanoidi Vengono da Marte/ The Diaphanoids Come From Mars (2nd film in the Gamma-One series)
• War Between the Planets (1965) aka Il Pianeta Errante, aka Planet on the Prowl (the 3rd film in the Gamma-One series)
• Snow Devils (1965) aka La Morte Viene dal Pianeta Aytin/ Death Comes From The Planet Aytin, aka Space Devils (4th film in the Gamma-One series)
• Lightning Bolt (1965) aka Operation Goldman
• Agent 077 Challenges the Killers (1966)
• Dynamite Joe (1967) spaghetti western
• Naked You Die (1968) aka The Young, the Evil and the Savage, aka The Schoolgirl Killer
• Vengeance (1968) aka Roko's Revenge (starring Richard Harrison)
• The Unnaturals (1969) aka Contronatura
• Mr. Super Invisible (1970)
• And God Called Cain (1970) spaghetti western starring Klaus Kinski
• Web of the Spider (1971) starring Klaus Kinski (this was a color remake of his 1963 "Castle of Blood")
• Fistful of Dynamite (1971) Margheriti only handled the Special Effects on this film, directed by Sergio Leone
• Treasure Island (1972) starring Orson Welles (Margheriti co-directed this with John Hough and Andrea Bianchi)
• Seven Dead in the Cat's Eye (1973) giallo co-starring Anton Diffring
• Hercules vs Karate (1973)
• Andy Warhol's Frankenstein (1973) aka Flesh For Frankenstein (Margheriti was 2nd unit director to Paul Morrissey) filmed in 3-D
• Andy Warhol's Dracula (1973) aka Blood for Dracula (Margheriti was 2nd unit director to Paul Morrissey)
• The Stranger and the Gunfighter (1974) starring Lee Van Cleef
• Take a Hard Ride (1975) spaghetti western starring Lee Van Cleef & Fred Williamson
• The Rip-off (1975) aka The Squeeze (starring Lee Van Cleef)
• Death Rage (1976) aka Blood Reckoning (starring Yul Brynner)
• Killer Fish (1977) aka Treasure of the Piranha, starring Lee Majors & James Franciscus
• The Humanoid (1979) Margheriti only handled the Special Effects on this film, directed by Aldo Lado
• Cannibal Apocalypse (1980) aka Invasion of the Flesh Hunters, aka Apocalypse Tomorrow, starring John Saxon
• Car Crash (1981) starring Joey Travolta
• The Last Hunter (1982) starring David Warbeck
• Hunters of the Golden Cobra (1982) starring David Warbeck
• Tiger Joe (1982) starring David Warbeck
• Ark of the Sun God (1983) starring David Warbeck
• Yor, the Hunter from the Future (1983) aka The World of Yor, starring Reb Brown
• Last Blood (1983) aka Tornado
• Code Name Wild Geese (1984) starring Lee Van Cleef & Klaus KInski
• Jungle Raiders (1985) aka Captain Yankee, starring Lee Van Cleef
• Commando Leopard (1985) starring Klaus Kinski
• Treasure Island in Outer Space (1987) made for Italian TV, starring Anthony Quinn, David Warbeck & John Morghen
• The Commander (1988) aka "Triangle of Fear", starring Lee Van Cleef & Donald Pleasence
• Alien From the Deep (1989) aka Alien From The Abyss, starring Charles Napier
• Indio (1989) starring Marvin Hagler & Brian Dennehy
• Indio 2: The Revolt (1991) starring Marvin Hagler
• Genghis Khan: The Story of a Lifetime (1993) starring Charlton Heston & John Saxon (this film was only released many years later in 2004)
• Virtual Weapon (1997) aka Cyberflic, starring Marvin Hagler & Terence Hill

Note* - "Treasure Island in Outer Space" (1987) was later remade by Disney as an animated film in 2002.

References

External links

• Official website
• Antonio Margheriti at the Internet Movie Database

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