Fernando Di Leo

Fernando Di Leo

Born: January 11, 1932
Died: December 1, 2003
in 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.

Movies for Fernando Di Leo...

Paura: Lucio Fulci Remembered - Volume 1
Title: Paura: Lucio Fulci Remembered - Volume 1
Character: Self
Released: March 6, 2008
Type: Movie
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.
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Caliber 9: Documentary
Title: Caliber 9: Documentary
Character: Self
Released: January 1, 2004
Type: Movie
Short documentary on the 1972 Italo-crime classic Caliber 9
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The Origin of the Mala
Title: The Origin of the Mala
Character: Himself
Released: January 1, 2004
Type: Movie
Short documentary focused on origins of the Mala, or Italian mob movie genre
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Fernando di Leo: La morale del genere
Title: Fernando di Leo: La morale del genere
Character: Self
Released: January 1, 2004
Type: Movie
The story of the legendary Italian director Fernando Di Leo (Milano Calibro 9, Il boss) narrated by himself and others members of his crew.
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Sergio Leone: cinema, cinema
Title: Sergio Leone: cinema, cinema
Character: Self - Filmmaker
Released: September 22, 2001
Type: Movie
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.
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Perros de la noche
Title: Perros de la noche
Released: August 14, 1986
Type: Movie
A young man forces his sister to work as a prostitute to earn enough money to survive.
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Alejandra, mon amour
Title: Alejandra, mon amour
Released: February 1, 1979
Type: Movie
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To Be Twenty
Title: To Be Twenty
Character: Man Giving Directions
Released: July 14, 1978
Type: Movie
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.
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Nick the Sting
Title: Nick the Sting
Character: Film Director in Front of Police Station (uncredited)
Released: September 14, 1976
Type: Movie
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.
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Italian Sex
Title: Italian Sex
Character: giornalista TV (uncredited)
Released: June 11, 1974
Type: Movie
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.
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The Boss
Title: The Boss
Character: Cocchi's Henchman (uncredited)
Released: February 1, 1973
Type: Movie
A hitman finds himself embroiled in the middle of a Mafia war between the Sicilians and the Calabrians.
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Amarsi male
Title: Amarsi male
Character: Man at House of Prostitution
Released: August 9, 1969
Type: Movie
Anna plays 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.
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For a Few Dollars More
Title: For a Few Dollars More
Character: Cigar Smoking Card Player (uncredited)
Released: December 18, 1965
Type: Movie
Two bounty hunters are in pursuit of "El Indio," one of the most wanted fugitives in the western territories, and his gang.
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The Return of Ringo
Title: The Return of Ringo
Character: Fuentes Henchman
Released: December 8, 1965
Type: Movie
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!