Antonio Margheriti

Antonio Margheriti (19 September 1930 – 4 November 2002), also known under the pseudonyms Anthony M. Dawson and Antony Daisies ("daisies" is "margherite" in Italian), was an Italian filmmaker. Margheriti worked in many different genres in the Italian film industry, and was known for his sometimes derivative but often stylish and entertaining science fiction, sword and sandal, horror/giallo, Eurospy, spaghetti western, Vietnam War and action movies that were released to a wide international audience. He died in 2002.

Early life and career

Antonio Margheriti was born in Rome on 19 September 1930. Margheriti was the son of a railroad engineer and began his film career in 1950 working with Mario Serandrei.He then began making short documentaries beginning with Vecchia Roma in 1953.In 1954, Margheriti was credited with special effects in films such as Pino Mercanti'sI cinque dell'Adamello and La notte che la terra tremo. By 1955 he was credited in screenplays such as Classe di ferro.

Directing career

Margheriti grew up reading science fiction comics, and when he was offered to direct the film Space-Men, he signed on to the project. He followed up this film with Battle of the Worlds starring actor Claude Rains, which was in turn followed by The Golden Arrow with Tab Hunter and some more peplum-style films such as The Fall of Rome and Giants of Rome. Other genres tackled in the 1960s included horror in films such as Castle of Blood, The Long Hair of Death and The Virgin of Nuremberg, and the Eurospy film with Sfida ai Killers and Operazione Goldman.

After these, Margheriti returned to science fiction with his Gamma I series, which were originally filmed for the Italian television series Fantascienza but were afterwards released theatrically. Margheriti followed these films with some westerns, including Take a Hard Ride and And God Said to Cain.t

In the 1980s, Margheriti created films following the success of Raiders of the Lost Ark, including The Last Hunter and Hunters of the Golden Cobra, which both starred David Warbeck. Warbeck also starred in Tiger Joe, a film whose production became overshadowed by tragedy as Margheriti's long time cinematographer Riccardo Pallottini died when his plane crashed while he was attempting to get the film's last shot. Margheriti delved into the genre of films inspired by the Vietnam War but also directed Yor, the Hunter from the Future, which was shot in Turkey and was picked up by Columbia Pictures for an American release to 1400 theaters.

Margheriti died on 4 November 2002.

Margheriti's specialty in films was low budget efforts that fell into genres such as action and science fiction. To make films in short amounts of time, Margheriti applied techniques such as shooting with several cameras simultaneously, allowing him to record master shots, close-ups, and more. This often led him to light films very carefully, and allowed him to create several films per year.

Note: The films listed as N/A are not necessarily chronological.

In the documentary on the Image DVD release of his film Cannibal Apocalypse, Margheriti proudly mentioned that it was Quentin Tarantino's favorite among his films. In his own film Inglourious Basterds, in turn, Tarantino let Eli Roth's character Donnie Donowitz use "Antonio Margheriti" as an alias in an undercover operation at the cinema screening of Stolz der Nation. There is also a much more explicit reference in Tarantino's most recent film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. In said film, Leonardo DiCaprio portrays fictional B-list actor named Rick Dalton, who goes to Italy to film Spaghetti Westerns, including one directed by Margheriti.