Umberto Lenzi

Umberto Lenzi (born 6 August 1931), is 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).

Early life

Umberto Lenzi was born on June 8, 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 what his officially first credited film as a director, Queen of the Seas (1961), 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 Torionfo di Robin Hood (1962) and The Invincible Masked Rider (1963) and two films about Sandokan, Sandokan the Great (1963) and Pirates of Malaysia (1964).

By 1965, Lenzi began directed European spy films, such as 008: Operation Exterminate followed by Superseven chiama Cairo (1965) and Le spie amano i fiori (1966) and even adapted fumetti neri comics such as Kriminal (1966). Lenzi adapted himself to making war films such as Desert Commandos (1967) and Legion of the Damned (1969) and Westerns such as Pistol for a Hundred Coffins (1968) and All Out (1968).

Lenzi had box office successes 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 Rene Clement.

1970s

After the commercial success of giallo films by Dario Argento, Lenzi followed the new trend with Seven Bloodstained Orchids (1972) which referenced Cornell Woolrich novels while another gialli 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 Wide-Eyed in the Dark (1974).

During the early 1970s, Lenzi also created 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 (1980) and Cannibal Ferox. During the late 1970s, Lenzi devoted himself almost exclusively to crime dramas, with the exception of two war films: Battle Force (1978) 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 (1981) and the previously mentioned Cannibal Ferox. Follow these films, Lenzi created some sex comedies including Cicciabomba (1982).

Lenzi also worked on horror films towards the late 1980s with films such as Ghosthouse (1988) under the name Humphrey Humbert and the slahser film Nightmare Beach which was credited to Harry Kirkpatrick as Lenzi refused to sign his name to the film. Other later 1980s work included the horror films that were made for television, including The House of Witchraft and The House of Lost Souls.

1990s and later work

In 1992, Lenzi directed David Warbeck in the first of a series of adventure films called Hornsby and Rodriguez (Mean Tricks). Lenzi would end 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 mysterys set in the 1930s and '40s Cinecitta, involving real-life characters of the Italian film industry.

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."

• Queen of the Seas (1961)
• Catherine of Russia (1962)
• The Triumph of Robin Hood (1962)
• Duel of Fire (1962)
• The Invincible Masked Rider (1962)
• Samson and the Slave Queen (1963) aka Zorro vs. Maciste
• Sandokan the Great (1963)
• Pirates of Malaysia (1964) aka Pirates of the Seven Seas
• Temple of the White Elephants (1964)
• Adventures of the Bengal Lancers (1964)
• Messalina vs. the Son of Hercules (1964)
• Jungle Adventurer (1965) aka Temple of a Thousand Lights
• 008: Operation Exterminate (1965)
• Super Seven Calling Cairo (1965)
• The Spy Who Loved Flowers (1966)
• Last Man to Kill (1966)
• Kriminal (1966)
• Attentato ai tre grandi/ Desert Commandos (1967)
• All Out (1968) aka Tutto per tutto, Go For Broke
• A Pistol for a Hundred Coffins (1968)
• Battle of the Commandos (1969) aka Legion of the Damned
• Orgasmo (1969) released internationally as Paranoia
• So Sweet... So Perverse (1969)
• Oasis of Fear (1969) released in Italy as An Ideal Place to Kill
• A Quiet Place to Kill (1970) released in Italy as Paranoia
• Man from the Deep River (1972)
• Seven Blood-Stained Orchids (1972)
• Il coltello di ghiaccio (1972) aka Knife of Ice
• Gang War in Milan (1973)
• Spasmo (1974)
• Almost Human (1974) aka The Kidnapping of Mary Lou
• Eyeball (1975) aka Wide-Eyed in the Dark
• Manhunt in the City (1975)
• Syndicate Sadists (1975)
• Napoli violenta/ Violent Naples (1976)
• The Tough Ones (1976) aka Rome Armed to the Teeth
• Free Hand for a Tough Cop (1976)
• Brothers Till We Die (1977)
• The Cynic, the Rat and the Fist (1977)
• The Greatest Battle (1978) aka Battle Force
• From Hell to Victory (1979)
• From Corleone to Brooklyn (1979)
• Nightmare City (1980)
• Eaten Alive! (1980)
• Cannibal Ferox (1981) aka Make Them Die Slowly
• Pierino la peste alla riscossa (1982)
• Cicciabomba (1982)
• Daughter of the Jungle (1982)
• Ironmaster (1982) aka La guerra di ferro
• Wild Team (1985)
• A Bridge to Hell (1986)
• Wartime (1987)
• Nightmare Beach (1988) aka Welcome to Spring Break
• Ghosthouse (1988)
• Hell's Gate (1989)
• Hitcher in the Dark (1989)
• The House of Witchcraft (1989) (TV movie)
• The House of Lost Souls (1989) (TV movie)
• Dèmoni 3/ Black Demons (1991)
• Cop Target (1991)
• The Hunt for the Golden Scorpion (1991)
• Mean Tricks (1992)