Umberto Lenzi
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
Related e |
Featured: |
Umberto Lenzi (6 August 1931 – 19 October 2017) was an Italian film director who was very active in Italian international co-production peplums, Eurospy films, spaghetti westerns, Macaroni Combat movies, Poliziotteschi films, cannibal films and giallo murder mysteries (in addition to writing many of the screenplays himself).
Contents |
Biography
Early life
Umberto Lenzi was born on 6 August 1931 in the Massa Marittima province of Italy. Lenzi was a film enthusiast as early as grade school. While studying law, Lenzi also created film fan clubs. Lenzi eventually put off studying law and began pursuing the technical arts of filmmaking.
He enrolled in Rome's Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografica in 1956 and made the short I ragazzi di Trastevere as a final exam, a short film influenced by the writings of Pasolini. Lenzi also worked as a journalist for various newspapers and magazines, including Bianco e Nero.
1960s
Prior to his officially first credited film as a director, Queen of the Seas, Lenzi directed a film in Greece in 1958 titled Mia Italida stin Ellada, or Vacanze ad Atene, which was never released.
Lenzi's films of the 1960s revolved around popular genres of their respective time periods. In the early 1960s, Lenzi directed many adventure films including two features about Robin Hood (Il Trionfo di Robin Hood and The Invincible Masked Rider) and two films about Sandokan (Sandokan the Great (1963) and Pirates of Malaysia (1964)).
By 1965, Lenzi began directing European spy films, such as 008: Operation Exterminate, followed by Superseven chiama Cairo and Le spie amano i fiori, and even adapted fumetti neri comics such as Kriminal to the screen. Lenzi turned to making war films such as Desert Commandos and Legion of the Damned and westerns such as Pistol for a Hundred Coffins and All Out (1968).
Lenzi had box office success in Italy with his erotic thrillers starring Carroll Baker such as Orgasmo, So Sweet... So Perverse and A Quiet Place to Kill which were influenced by French "film noir" movies drawing from the works of Jacques Deray and René Clément.
1970s
After the commercial success of giallo films by Dario Argento, Lenzi followed the new trend with Seven Bloodstained Orchids, which referenced both Cornell Woolrich and Edgar Wallace novels, while another giallo Knife of Ice was a variation of Robert Siodmak's The Spiral Staircase. Other gialli created by Lenzi in the early 1970s included Spasmo and Eyeball.
During the early 1970s, Lenzi also directed the first of the Italian cannibal films, with The Man from Deep River (1972), a genre that he would explore again in the 1980s with Eaten Alive! and Cannibal Ferox. During the late 1970s, Lenzi devoted himself almost exclusively to crime dramas, with the exception of two war films: Battle Force and From Hell to Victory (1979).
1980s
The 1980s began the decline of genre cinema in Italy. Despite this, it marked the release of films that Roberto Curti described as some of Lenzi's "most notorious". These included Nightmare City and the previously mentioned Cannibal Ferox. Following these films, Lenzi created some sexy comedies, including Cicciabomba.
Lenzi also worked on horror films towards the late 1980s, such as Ghosthouse (1988) under the name Humphrey Humbert and the slasher film Nightmare Beach which was credited to Harry Kirkpatrick as Lenzi refused to sign his name to the film. Other later 1980s work included horror films made for television, such as The House of Witchraft and The House of Lost Souls.
Post-1980s
In 1992, Lenzi directed David Warbeck in an adventure film called Hornsby and Rodriguez (aka Mean Tricks). Lenzi ended his career with a few cop films that were similar to the American productions of that period. Lenzi later embarked on a career as a novelist, writing a series of murder mysteries set in the 1930s and '40s Cinecitta, involving real-life characters of the Italian film industry.
Lenzi died on 19 October 2017. The director was hospitalized at a hospital in the Ostia district of Rome. The cause of the death is unknown.
Legacy
Roberto Curti referred to Lenzi as "one of the undisputed leading figures in Italian genre cinema" and that he was "a sort of institution in Italian genre cinema." Louis Paul suggested that Lenzi released some "quite enjoyable action films in the 1960s and some good thrilers in the '70s, he never consistently excelled at any one genre." and that Lenzi would "probably be remembered most for his cannibal-themed horror films."
Filmography
- Queen of the Seas (1961)
- Caterina di Russia (1962)
- Triumph of Robin Hood (1962)
- Duello nella Sila (1962) aka "Duel of Fire"
- L'invincibile cavaliere mascherato/ The Invincible Masked Rider (1962) aka "Terror of the Black Mask"
- Sandokan, la tigre di Mompracem/ Sandokan, the Tiger of Mompracem (1963) aka "Sandokan The Great"
- Zorro Vs Maciste (1963) aka "Samson and the Slave Queen"
- Temple of the White Elephant (1964) aka "Sandok, the Maciste of the Jungle"
- The Pirates of Malaysia (1964) w. Steve Reeves
- Messalina Against the Son of Hercules (1964) aka "The Last Gladiator"
- Superseven chiama Cairo (1965) aka "Super Seven Calling Cairo"
- 008 Operation Exterminate (1965)
- The Spy Loves Flowers (1966)
- A Million Dollars For Seven Killers (1966)
- Kriminal (1966)
- Attentato ai tre grandi (US title: Desert Commandos) 1967)
- Copperface (1967)
- A Pistol for a Hundred Coffins (1968)
- Legion of the Damned (1962) aka "Battle of the Commandos"
- Orgasmo (1969) (released as "Paranoia" in the USA)
- Paranoia (1969) (released as "A Quiet Place To Kill" in the USA, since "Orgasmo" was already released in the USA as "Paranoia")
- So Sweet, So Perverse (1969)
- Il Paese del sesso selvaggio (1972) aka "The Man From Deep River", aka "Sacrifice"
- Seven Bloodstained Orchids (1972) aka "Puzzle of the Silver Half Moons"
- Il coltello di ghiaccio (1972) aka "The Knife of Ice", aka "Silent Horror"
- Gang War in Milan (1973)
- Spasmo (1974)
- Milano odia la polizia non può sparare (1974) aka "The Kidnapping of Mary Lou", aka "Almost Human"
- Gatti rossi in un labirinto di vetro (1975) aka "Eyeball", aka "Wide-Eyed in the Dark"
- Il giustiziere sfida la città/ "The Avenger Challenges the City" (1975) aka "Syndicate Sadists"
- Roma a mano armata (1976) aka "Brutal Justice"
- Napoli violenta (1976) aka "Violent Naples"
- Il trucido e lo sbirro (1976) aka "Free Hand for a Tough Cop"
- La banda del Gobbo (1977) aka "Brothers Till We Die"
- Il grande attacco (1978) aka "The Great Battle"
- Contro 4 bandiere (1979) aka "From Hell to Victory"
- Da Corleone a Brooklyn (1979) aka "The Sicilian Boss"
- Nightmare City (Incubo sulla città contaminata) (1980) aka "City of the Walking Dead"
- Eaten Alive! (Mangiati vivi) (1980) aka "The Emerald Jungle", aka "Doomed To Die"
- Cannibal Ferox (1981) aka "Make Them Die Slowly"
- Daughter of the Jungle (1982) aka "Incontro nell'ultimo paradiso"
- La guerra del ferro/ The War of Iron (1982) aka "Ironmaster"
- Nightmare Beach (1988) aka "Welcome to Spring Break"
- La casa 3 - Ghosthouse (1988) aka "Evil Dead 3", aka "Ghosthouse"
- Hell's Gate (1989)
- Hitcher in the Dark (1989) aka "Fear in the Dark"
- The House of Witchcraft (1989) Made for Italian TV
- The House of Lost Souls (1989) Made for Italian TV
- Black Demons (1991) aka "Demons 3"
- Hunt for the Golden Scorpion (1991)
- Mean Tricks (1993)
See also